The hybridization of semiconductor optoelectronic devices and nanomechanical resonators provides a new class of optomechanical systems in which mechanical motion can be coupled to light without any optical cavities. Such cavity-less optomechanical systems interconnect photons, phonons and electrons (holes) in a highly integrable platform, opening up the development of functional integrated nano...

This thesis work focuses on the design, fabrication and measurement of Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) nano-optomechanical disk resonators. These disks are both GHz frequency mechanical resonators, and high Q (> 10) optical whispering gallery mode resonators. By confining optical and mechanical energy on a sub-μm volume, they enable extremely large optomechanical coupling strengths (g0 >1 MHz). We pres...

Micro/nanocantilevers have been employed as sensors in many applications including chemical and biosensing. Due to their high sensitivity and potential for scalability, miniature sensing systems are in wide use and will likely become more prevalent in micro/nano-electromechanical systems (M-NEMSs). This paper is mainly focused on the use of sensing systems that employ micro/nano-size cantilever...

The graphene nano-electro-mechanical switches are promising components due to their outstanding switching performance. However, most of the reported devices suffered from a large actuation voltages, hindering them from the integration in the conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuit. In this work, we demonstrated the graphene nano-electro-mechanical switches with the l...

Nanotechnology involves the ability to see and control individual atoms and molecules which are about 100 nanometer or smaller. One of the major tools used in this field is atomic force microscopy which uses a wealth of techniques to measure the topography and investigates the surface forces in nanoscale. Friction force is the representation of the surface interaction between two surfaces an...

In this paper, the effect of the crack on dynamic behavior of cracked micro-beam in the presence of DC and AC loads are investigated. By applying the residual axial stress and fringing field stress, a nonlinear analytical model of cracked micro-beam is presented and crack is modeled by a massless rotational spring. The governing equation of the system is solved using Galerkin procedure and shoo...

Measurement of force on a micro- or nano-Newton scale is important when exploring the mechanical properties of materials in the biophysics and nanomechanical fields. The atomic force microscope (AFM) is widely used in microforce measurement. The cantilever probe works as an AFM force sensor, and the spring constant of the cantilever is of great significance to the accuracy of the measurement re...

In 1988, intrinsic localized mode (ILM) was theoretically discovered as a temporary periodic and spatially localized solution in a nonlinear coupled oscillator. This discovery triggered wide-spread investigations on energy localization phenomena in spatially discrete systems. In particular, observations of the ILM in micro-mechanical cantilever arrays enable us to expect that energy localizatio...

We report on the fabrication and operation of a multi-element vibrational structure consisting of two graphene mechanical resonators coupled by a nanotube beam. The whole structure is suspended. Each graphene resonator is clamped by two metal electrodes. The structure is fabricated using a combination of electron-beam lithography and atomic-force microscopy nano-manipulation. This layout allows...

Current progress on the use of dynamic-mode cantilever sensors for biosensing applications is critically reviewed. We summarize their use in biosensing applications to date with focus given to: cantilever size (milli-, micro-, and nano-cantilevers), their geometry, and material used in fabrication. The review also addresses techniques investigated for both exciting and measuring cantilever reso...