An AC-assisted single-nanowire electromechanical switch
A unique two-source controlled nanoelectromechanical switch has been assembled from individual, single-clamped Ge nanowires. The switching behaviour was achieved by superimposing the control signals of specific frequencies to the electrostatic potential of the output terminals, eliminating the need for an additional gate electrode. Using an in situ manipulation technique inside a scanning electron microscope, we demonstrate that the pull-out force required to overcome adhesion at the contact can be significantly reduced by exciting mechanical resonant modes within the nanowire.
Fabrication and Characterization of Double- and Single-Clamped CuO Nanowire Based Nanoelectromechanical Switches
Electrostatically actuated nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switches hold promise for operation with sharply defined ON/OFF states, high ON/OFF current ratio, low OFF state power consumption, and a compact design. The present challenge for the development of nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) technology is fabrication of single nanowire based NEM switches. In this work, we demonstrate the first application of CuO nanowires as NEM switch active elements. We develop bottom-up and top-down approaches for NEM switch fabrication, such as CuO nanowire synthesis, lithography, etching, dielectrophoretic alignment of nanowires on electrodes, and nanomanipulations for building devices that are suitable f…
Determination of Young’s modulus of Sb2S3 nanowires by in situ resonance and bending methods
In this study we address the mechanical properties of Sb2S3 nanowires and determine their Young’s modulus using in situ electric-field-induced mechanical resonance and static bending tests on individual Sb2S3 nanowires with cross-sectional areas ranging from 1.1·104 nm2 to 7.8·104 nm2. Mutually orthogonal resonances are observed and their origin explained by asymmetric cross section of nanowires. The results obtained from the two methods are consistent and show that nanowires exhibit Young’s moduli comparable to the value for macroscopic material. An increasing trend of measured values of Young’s modulus is observed for smaller thickness samples.
Extra tension at electrode-nanowire adhesive contacts in nano-electromechanical devices
Abstract We report a strong tangential component of the reaction force at electrode to nanowire adhesive contact which was previously established using electrostatic attraction. The reaction force tangential component absolute value was found to be comparable to or even bigger than the corresponding normal component. This effect is important for understanding of the mechanics of nano-electromechanical devices. Both the experiment and the corresponding theory are presented. Fitting of the obtained analytical solutions to experimental data was used to measure the reaction force acting at the contact for several nanowire-electrode configurations.
Resonance assisted jump-in voltage reduction for electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based gateless NEM switches.
Electrostatically actuated nanobeam-based electromechanical switches have shown promise for versatile novel applications, such as low power devices. However, their widespread use is restricted due to poor reliability resulting from high jump-in voltages. This article reports a new method for lowering the jump-in voltage by inducing mechanical oscillations in the active element during the switching ON process, reducing the jump-in voltage by more than three times. Ge0.91Sn0.09 alloy and Bi2Se3 nanowire-based nanoelectromechanical switches were constructed in situ to demonstrate the operation principles and advantages of the proposed method.