Invited
Strain-induced Coupling between Nanomechanical Pillar Resonators

Strong couping between adjacent nanomechanical pillar resonators is mediated by the strain distribution in the joint substrate.

Top-down fabricated vertically oriented nanomechanical pillar resonators [1] offer the advantage of straightforward integration into large and compact arrays. Strong strain-induced intrinsic coupling between pairs of nanomechanical pillar resonators is demonstrated via the observation of mode hybridization and the formation of an avoided level crossing [2]. Furthermore, the coupling strength is investigated for different pillar geometries in simulation and measurements. This enables to tailor the nanopillar’s resonance frequency and inter-resonator coupling strength via the geometric design of the pair. In the future, this will provide integration into networks of strongly coupled nanopillar resonators enabling the investigation of phenomena such as topological edge transport, nonreciprocal behavior or synchronization.

[1] Paulitschke et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 103, 261901 (2013).

[2] Doster et al., in preparation.