This paper demonstrates and compares different experimental techniques utilized to estimate the quality factor (Q) and natural frequency from non-contact measurements of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) motions. The relative merits of those techniques are contrasted in Q factor estimation for a cantilever beam MEMS actuator, operated in three configurations: free standing, arc-shaped, and ...

Selective Ga + ion implantation and miring by focused ion beam exposure and subsequent wet chemical etching is used to fabricate micro/nanomechanical elements in Si. Freestanding elements with a ~ 30 nm membrane thickness are made by controlled selective underetching between unexposed and exposed areas. Ultrahigh-frequency cantilever beams have been made with resonances in the tens of MHz range...

This study proposes new microcantilever designs in slotted step configuration to improve the S/N ratio of surface stress-based sensors used in physical, chemical, biochemical and biosensor applications. The cantilevers are made of silicon dioxide with a u-shaped silicon piezoresistor in p-doped. The cantilever step length and piezoresistor length is varied along with the operating voltage to ch...

Experiments on Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) demonstrate that ultrasonic-assisted actuation with the tip of an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilever can induce stacking modifications and folding of triangular-shaped HOPG surface flakes. We have generated permanent displacements of buried dislocations that require stacking changes of extended graphene layers by repeatedly scanning...

Spin-triplet superfluids can support exotic objects, such as half-quantum vortices characterized by the nontrivial winding of the spin structure. We present cantilever magnetometry measurements performed on mesoscopic samples of Sr(2)RuO(4), a spin-triplet superconductor. With micrometer-sized annular-shaped samples, we observed transitions between integer fluxoid states as well as a regime cha...