Arbitrary distribution and nonlinear modal interaction in coupled nanomechanical resonators

We propose a general one-dimensional continuous formulation to analyze the vibrational modes of antennalike nanomechanical resonators consisting of two symmetric arrays of cantilevers affixed to a central nanobeam. The cantilever arrays can have arbitrary density and length profile along the beam. We obtain the secular equation that allows for the determination of their frequency spectrum and illustrate the results on the particular examples of structures with constant or alternating cantilever length profiles. We show that our analytical results capture the vibration spectrum of such resonators and elucidate key relationships that could prove advantageous for experimental device performance. Furthermore, using a perturbative approach to treat the nonlinear and dissipative dynamics of driven structures, we analyze the anharmonic coupling between two specific widely spaced modes of the coupled-element device, with direct application to experiments. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.3132088