Mode coupling bi-stability and spectral broadening in buckled carbon nanotube mechanical resonators

Bi-stable mechanical resonators play a significant role in various applications, such as sensors, memory elements, quantum computing and mechanical parametric amplification. While carbon nanotube based resonators have been widely investigated as promising NEMS devices, a bi-stable carbon nanotube resonator has never been demonstrated. Here, we report a class of carbon nanotube resonators in which the nanotube is buckled upward. We show that a small upward buckling yields record electrical frequency tunability, whereas larger buckling can achieve Euler-Bernoulli bi-stability, the smallest mechanical resonator with two stable configurations to date. We believe that these recently-discovered carbon nanotube devices will open new avenues for realizing nano-sensors, mechanical memory elements and mechanical parametric amplifiers. Furthermore, we present a three-dimensional theoretical analysis revealing significant nonlinear coupling between the in-plane and out-of-plane static and dynamic modes of motion, and a unique three-dimensional Euler-Bernoulli snap-through transition. We utilize this coupling to provide a conclusive explanation for the low quality factor in carbon nanotube resonators at room temperature, key in understanding dissipation mechanisms at the nano scale.