Metastability and the Casimir effect in micromechanical systems

By Eyal Buks, Michael L. Roukes. 2000

149 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Electrostatic and Casimir interactions limit the range of positional stability of electrostatically actuated or capacitively coupled mechanical devices. We investigate this range experimentally for a generic system consisting of a doubly clamped Au suspended beam, capacitively coupled to an adjacent stationary electrode. The mechanical properties of the beam, both in the linear and nonlinear regimes, are monitored as the attractive forces are increased to the point of instability. There pull-in occurs, resulting in permanent adhesion between the electrodes. We investigate, experimentally and theoretically, the position-dependent lifetimes of the free state (existing prior to pull-in). We find that the data cannot be accounted for by simple theory; the discrepancy may be reflective of internal structural instabilities within the metal electrodes.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/277703fdbe9e9c24995e118422c8cd3244f7da7d

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

In Materials Chemistry

Citations in the corpus

Nonlinear Dynamics and Its Applications in Micro- and Nanoresonators (2010, background): “Another small-scale force, which is entirely non-classical and is very strong at scales of ∼10 nm, is the Casimir-Polder force [50, 51].”
The Casimir effect in microstructured geometries (2011, unknown): “The issue of Casimir interactions between metallic and dielectric surfaces in close proximity will inevitably need to be faced, with particular attention being given to potentially troublesome phenomena such as stiction — the irreversible adhesion of moving parts resulting from electrostatic and Cas”
Review of modeling electrostatically actuated microelectromechanical systems (2007, background): “phenomenon in NEMSs can be found in [104–108].”
Casimir Forces and Quantum Electrodynamical Torques: Physics and Nanomechanics (2007, unknown): “tromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) [24], [54], [55].”
Nonlinear damping in a micromechanical oscillator (2009, methodology): “With a relatively modest driving force, the system is driven into the region of nonlinear oscillations [16, 71].”