Collaborative Research: Nonlinear Operation of Nanoelectromechanical Systems (NEMS)

该项目将解决纳米技术中的公开科学问题，从而改进纳米级传感器。该项目将通过实现超灵敏和强大的纳米机电设备来促进科学进步，促进国家健康、繁荣和安全。纳米机电传感器可以很容易地检测单个原子和分子，有望为医疗诊断和环境监测提供强大的新方法，具有潜在的单分子灵敏度。这一研究项目将极大地扩展纳米机电传感器的工作参数，使其能够在非线性区域稳健地工作。该项目中开发的机械和方法将允许这些显微机器的广泛使用，并促进各种传感应用的快速进展。该项目还将通过显著加强戈登学院(Gordon College)的本科教育，为美国劳动力发展做出贡献。戈登学院是一家小型文科院校。该项目的总体目标是解决与纳米机电谐振器的非线性操作相关的科学问题，并开发用于操作它们的工具包。到目前为止，纳米机电谐振器大多工作在线性区域。在线性区域，广泛使用的共振跟踪技术通过锁定谐振器围绕其机械共振的快速变化但平滑的相位或幅度响应来工作。然而，这样的反馈技术在非线性区域是不起作用的，因为物理可观量由于分叉而有不连续的跳跃。这个项目不是专注于复杂的控制算法和控制器，而是系统地研究寻找新的物理观测的可能性，这可能允许使用标准控制器控制非线性谐振器。为了验证该项目的方法，该团队将通过将纳米机电谐振器与现场可编程门阵列(现场可编程门阵列)电子相结合来开发一系列新颖的实验技术和仪器。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will address open scientific questions in nanotechnology leading to improved nano-scale sensors. The project will promote the progress of science and advance the national health, prosperity and security by enabling ultra-sensitive and robust nanoelectromechanical devices. Nanoelectromechanical sensors can easily detect single atoms and molecules, and are expected to provide powerful new approaches to medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring potentially with single-molecule sensitivity. This research project will vastly expand the operational parameters of nanoelectromechanical sensors and enable them to operate robustly in the nonlinear regime. The machinery and methods developed in this project will allow for widespread use of these microscopic machines and facilitate rapid progress toward the various sensing applications. The project will also contribute to U.S. workforce development by significantly enhancing undergraduate education at Gordon College, a small liberal arts institution. The overarching goals of this project are to resolve scientific questions pertinent to nonlinear operation of nanoelectromechanical resonators and to develop a toolkit for operating them. So far, nanoelectromechanical resonators have mostly been operated in the linear regime. In the linear regime, the widely-used resonance tracking techniques work by locking onto the rapidly-changing but smooth phase or amplitude response of a resonator around its mechanical resonance. However, such feedback techniques do not work in the nonlinear regime, because physical observables have discontinuous jumps due to bifurcations. Instead of focusing on complex control algorithms and controllers, this project will systematically investigate the possibility of finding novel physical observables, which may allow for controlling nonlinear resonators using standard controllers. In order to validate this project's approach, the team will develop a host of novel experimental techniques and instruments by combining nanoelectromechanical resonators with Field Programmable Gated Array (FPGA) electronics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.