Study of buckling behavior at the nanoscale through capillary adhesion force

This paper presents mechanical actuation experiments performed on ultrathin suspended nanoscale silicon devices presenting Euler buckling. The devices are fabricated by a combination of focused ion beam (FIB) implantation and selective wet etching. By loading the center of curved nanobeams with an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip the beams can be switched from an up-buckled position to the opposite down-buckled configuration. It is possible to describe the entire snap-through process thanks to the presence of strong capillary forces that act as physical constraint between the tip and the device. The experiments conducted recall the same behavior of macro and microscale devices with similar geometry. Curved nanobeams present a bistable behavior, i.e. they are stable in both configurations, up or down-buckled. In addition to that, by the method presented, it is possible to observe the dynamic of a mechanical switch at the nanoscale.European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013, under grant agreement no. 318804 (SNM)MINECO/FEDER (NANOINTEGRA -TEC2015-69864-R)Peer reviewe

Study of buckling behavior at the nanoscale through capillary adhesion force

This paper presents mechanical actuation experiments performed on ultrathin suspended nanoscale silicon devices presenting Euler buckling. The devices are fabricated by a combination of focused ion beam (FIB) implantation and selective wet etching. By loading the center of curved nanobeams with an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip the beams can be switched from an up-buckled position to the opposite down-buckled configuration. It is possible to describe the entire snap-through process thanks to the presence of strong capillary forces that act as physical constraint between the tip and the device. The experiments conducted recall the same behavior of macro and microscale devices with similar geometry. Curved nanobeams present a bistable behavior, i.e. they are stable in both configurations, up or down-buckled. In addition to that, by the method presented, it is possible to observe the dynamic of a mechanical switch at the nanoscale.European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013, under grant agreement no. 318804 (SNM)MINECO/FEDER (NANOINTEGRA -TEC2015-69864-R)Peer reviewe