On the Energy Transfer Performance of Mechanical Nanoresonators Coupled with Electromagnetic Fields

We study the energy transfer performance in electrically and magnetically coupled mechanical nanoresonators. Using the resonant scattering theory, we show that magnetically coupled resonators can achieve the same energy transfer performance as for their electrically coupled counterparts, or even outperform them within the scale of interest. Magnetic and electric coupling are compared in the Nanotube Radio, a realistic example of a nano-scale mechanical resonator. The energy transfer performance is also discussed for a newly proposed bio-nanoresonator composed of a magnetosomes coated with a net of protein fibers.Comment: 9 Pages, 3 Figure

The 2019 surface acoustic waves roadmap

Today, surface acoustic waves (SAWs) and bulk acoustic waves are already two of the very few phononic technologies of industrial relevance and can been found in a myriad of devices employing these nanoscale earthquakes on a chip. Acoustic radio frequency filters, for instance, are integral parts of wireless devices. SAWs in particular find applications in life sciences and microfluidics for sensing and mixing of tiny amounts of liquids. In addition to this continuously growing number of applications, SAWs are ideally suited to probe and control elementary excitations in condensed matter at the limit of single quantum excitations. Even collective excitations, classical or quantum are nowadays coherently interfaced by SAWs. This wide, highly diverse, interdisciplinary and continuously expanding spectrum literally unites advanced sensing and manipulation applications. Remarkably, SAW technology is inherently multiscale and spans from single atomic or nanoscopic units up even to the millimeter scale. The aim of this Roadmap is to present a snapshot of the present state of surface acoustic wave science and technology in 2019 and provide an opinion on the challenges and opportunities that the future holds from a group of renown experts, covering the interdisciplinary key areas, ranging from fundamental quantum effects to practical applications of acoustic devices in life science

The 2019 surface acoustic waves roadmap

Abstract Today, surface acoustic waves (SAWs) and bulk acoustic waves are already two of the very few phononic technologies of industrial relevance and can been found in a myriad of devices employing these nanoscale earthquakes on a chip. Acoustic radio frequency filters, for instance, are integral parts of wireless devices. SAWs in particular find applications in life sciences and microfluidics for sensing and mixing of tiny amounts of liquids. In addition to this continuously growing number of applications, SAWs are ideally suited to probe and control elementary excitations in condensed matter at the limit of single quantum excitations. Even collective excitations, classical or quantum are nowadays coherently interfaced by SAWs. This wide, highly diverse, interdisciplinary and continuously expanding spectrum literally unites advanced sensing and manipulation applications. Remarkably, SAW technology is inherently multiscale and spans from single atomic or nanoscopic units up even to the millimeter scale. The aim of this Roadmap is to present a snapshot of the present state of surface acoustic wave science and technology in 2019 and provide an opinion on the challenges and opportunities that the future holds from a group of renown experts, covering the interdisciplinary key areas, ranging from fundamental quantum effects to practical applications of acoustic devices in life science.EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 642688 (SAWtrain)

Levitated optomechanics: A tutorial and perspective

Optomechanics, the study of the mechanical interaction of light with matter, has proven to be a fruitful area of research that has yielded many notable achievements, including the direct detection of gravitational waves in kilometer-scale optical interferometers. Light has been used to cool and demonstrate quantum control over the mechanical degrees of freedom of individual ions and atoms, and more recently has facilitated the observation of quantum ``mechanics'' in objects of larger mass, even at the kg-scale. Levitated optomechanics, where an object can be suspended by radiation pressure and largely decoupled from its environment, has recently established itself as a rich field of study, with many notable results relevant for precision measurement, quantum information science, and foundational tests of quantum mechanics and fundamental physics. This article provides a survey of several current activities in field along with a tutorial describing associated key concepts and methods, both from an experimental and theoretical approach. It is intended as a resource for junior researchers who are new to this growing field as well as beginning graduate students. The tutorial is concluded with a perspective on both promising emerging experimental platforms and anticipated future theoretical developments.Comment: 50 pages, 19 figures, submitted to Advances in Optics and Photonic

Cooling and sensing using whispering gallery mode resonators

This thesis reports on a detailed exploration of the optomechanical interaction between a tapered optical fibre and a silica microsphere mounted on a cantilever. The amount of light evanescently coupled from the fibre into the optical whispering gallery mode of the sphere is exquisitely sensitive to their separation allowing fast measurement of picometre displacements of both the microsphere-cantilever and the fibre. By exploiting this enhanced transduction, strong active feedback damping/cooling of the thermal motion of both the fibre and microsphere-cantilever have been demonstrated to the noise limit of the system. The cavity enhanced optical dipole force between the fibre and the sphere was used to damp multiple mechanical modes of the tapered fibre, while a piezo-stack at the clamped end of the microsphere-cantilever allowed for cooling of its centre-of-mass motion and the second mechanical eigenmode. The effect of noise within the feedback loop was shown to invert the measured mechanical mode spectrum at high feedback gain as the noise itself is fed into the resonator. A rich variety of feedback induced spring stiffening and softening of the mode is measured when time delays are introduced. Cooling of the mechanical modes of the taper, which are ubiquitous to many whispering gallery mode experiments and are considered as unwanted noise, has not been achieved previously. Simultaneous operation of both feedback schemes was demonstrated for the first time, providing stabilization of the system. By using the microsphere-cantilever as an inertial test mass, measurement of its displacement induced by acceleration can resolve micro-g accelerations at high bandwidth

Superhydrophobic BIOMEMS sensor arrays: development of actuation and readout electronic strategies

2012/2013La tecnologia dei sistemi micro-elettro-meccanici (MEMS) ha dimostrato d’avere grandi potenzialità in molti campi, in particolare nei sistemi bio-medicali. Essa si basa infatti su processi di fabbricazione ad altro volume produttivo, permettendo una considerevole riduzione dei costi per dispositivo. Un ulteriore beneficio di questa tecnologia risiede nella possibilità di dimensionare i dispositivi fino a raggiungere l’ordine del submicron, così da consentire l’integrazione e il monitoraggio in tempo reale di sistemi sensibili a biomarker di tipo medicale e biologici. Tra gli obiettivi futuri dei MEMS biomedicali (BioMEMS) vi è la realizzazione di dispositivi in grado di interfacciarsi direttamente con il paziente e definirne lo stato di salute grazie alla rilevazione del livello di centinaia di diversi biomarker (siano essi chimici o fisici). La medicina assumerebbe in questa visione una configurazione ad personam nella quale al paziente verrebbe prontamente somministrato un quantitativo di medicinale adatto alle risposte del suo organismo. A tale scopo i dispositivi MEMS devono essere in grado di effettuare analisi multiple operando in un ambiente liquido. Tuttavia è proprio l’ambiente liquido a comportare la riduzione di sensibilità e, quindi, di performance dei sensori MEMS. La presente ricerca si pone lo scopo di sviluppare nuovi sistemi elettronici di misurazione e attuazione di due distinte tipologie di BioMEMS risonanti operanti in liquido, i cantilever e i pillar. In particolare verrano trattati tre argomenti: la realizzazione di setup ottici per applicazione dei MEMS in liquido ed in aria, la progettazione di sistemi elettronici di attuazione e lettura di singoli pillar nel loro comportamento in frequenza e lo sviluppo di un software LabVIEW in grado di programmare un FPGA ed ottenere un PLL digitale da impiegarsi nell’analisi in tempo reale del comportamento in frequenza di RF-MEMS. Il primo progetto è stato sviluppato in collaborazione l'Università di Kaiserslautern (Germania) e prevedeva la realizzazione di sistemi microfluidici e setups ottici, interfacciati in modo tale da permettere la rilevazione della risposta in frequenza di molteplici MEMS operanti in parallelo. Nel secondo progetto l’obiettivo era la realizzazione di un sistema elettronico in grado di integrare in un unico dispositivo i sistemi di attuazione e lettura dei pillar. In particolare siamo stati in grado di modulare l’ampiezza di risonanza dei nostri dispositivi risonanti mediante l’applicazione della forza di polarizzazione Kelvin mentre lo sviluppo del sistema di lettura richiede ulteriore lavoro di indagine. Infine, nell'ultimo progetto è stato realizzato un sistema PLL digitale con 10 MHz di banda passante utilizzando la tecnologia della National Instruments (FlexRIO NI5781R). Mediante questo PLL si è potuto identificare la frequenza di risonanza di diverse tipologie di MEMS e se ne è seguite le variazioni in tempo reale . Le attività di ricerca sperimentale sono state eseguite presso il laboratorio CNR- IOM a Trieste.XXVI Ciclo198