Carbon nanotubes as nanoelectromechanical systems

Tunneling in suspended carbon nanotubes assisted by longitudinal phonons

Optomechanics for thermal characterization of suspended graphene

The thermal response of graphene is expected to be extremely fast due to its low heat capacity and high thermal conductivity. In this work, the thermal response of suspended single-layer graphene membranes is investigated by characterization of their mechanical motion in response to a high-frequency modulated laser. A characteristic delay...

Phonon scattering at kinks in suspended graphene

Recent experiments have shown surprisingly large thermal time constants in suspended graphene ranging from 10 to 100 ns in drums with a diameter ranging from 2 to 7 μm. The large time constants and their scaling with diameter points toward a thermal resistance at the edge of the drum. However, an explanation of the microscopic origin of this...

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics of acoustic phonons in suspended graphene

Recent theory has predicted large temperature differences between the in-plane [longitudinal (LA) and transverse (TA)] and out-of-plane [flexural (ZA)] acoustic phonon baths in locally heated suspended graphene. To verify these predictions, and their implications for understanding the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of two-dimensional (2D)...

Magnetic and electronic phase transitions probed by nanomechanical resonators

The reduced dimensionality of two-dimensional (2D) materials results in characteristic types of magnetically and electronically ordered phases. However, only few methods are available to study this order, in particular in ultrathin insulating antiferromagnets that couple weakly to magnetic and electronic probes. Here, we demonstrate that...

Magnetic order in 2D antiferromagnets revealed by spontaneous anisotropic magnetostriction

The temperature dependent order parameter provides important information on the nature of magnetism. Using traditional methods to study this parameter in two-dimensional (2D) magnets remains difficult, however, particularly for insulating antiferromagnetic (AF) compounds. Here, we show that its temperature dependence in AF MPS₃ (M...

Thermo-Magnetostrictive Effect for Driving Antiferromagnetic Two-Dimensional Material Resonators

Magnetostrictive coupling has recently attracted interest as a sensitive method for studying magnetism in two-dimensional (2D) materials by mechanical means. However, its application in high-frequency magnetic actuators and transducers requires rapid modulation of the magnetic order, which is difficult to achieve with external magnets,...

A model analysis of centimeter-long electron transport in cable bacteria

The recent discovery of cable bacteria has greatly expanded the known length scale of biological electron transport, as these multi-cellular bacteria are capable of mediating electrical currents across centimeter-scale distances. To enable such long-range conduction, cable bacteria embed a network of regularly spaced, parallel protein fibers...