Nanomechanics

News and Updates

Quantum Thermometer or Optical Refrigerator?

June 22, 2017

In an arranged marriage of optics and mechanics, physicists have created microscopic structural beams that have a variety of powerful uses when light strikes

schematic of laser light interacting with a plasmonic gap resonator

NIST Device for Detecting Subatomic-Scale Motion Has Potential Robotics, Homeland Security Applications

December 15, 2016

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new device that measures the motion of super-tiny particles traversing

NIST Unveils Forensic Technique to Measure Mechanical Properties of Evidence

November 1, 2016

You may have seen it on CSI: The star examines hair from a crime scene and concludes its color or texture looks like the defendant’s hair, or maybe his dog’s

Projects and Programs

Designing the Nanoworld: Nanostructure, Nanodevices, and Nano-optics

Nano and atomic scale theory of the electronic, optical and mechanical properties of ultrasmall structures, such as semiconductor quantum dots and dopants in Si

Nanoplasmonics and Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Metamaterials

Metamaterials are tailor-made photonic composites--combinations of materials designed to achieve optical properties not seen in nature. The properties stem from

A micromechanical bulk acoustic resonator that uses phononic crystal tethers to achieve a quality factor approaching the fundamental dissipation limit (fxQ can be as large as 1.2 x 1013 Hz)

Micro- and Nanoelectromechanical Systems

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are integrated devices with critical applications in sensing, timing, signal processing, and biomedical diagnostics, and

Metrology and Standards for Nanoscale Stress

Our objective is to develop accurate measurement methods for the nanoscale stress distributions and surface defects that control device performance and

Publications

A system for probing Casimir energy corrections to the condensation energy

December 28, 2020

Author(s)

Diego J. Perez, Alexander Stange, Richard Lally, Lawrence Barrett, Matthias Imboden, Abhishek Som, David Campbell, Vladimir Aksyuk, David Bishop

In this article, we present a nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) designed to detect changes in the Casimir Energy. The Casimir effect is a result of the

Kirigami engineering - Nanoscale structures exhibiting a range of controllable 3D configurations

December 22, 2020

Author(s)

Xu Zhang, Lior Medina, Haogang Cai, Vladimir Aksyuk, Horacio Espinosa, Omar D. Lopez

Kirigami structures provide a promising approach to transform flat films with patterns of cuts into 3D complex structures that are difficult to achieve by

Snakeskin-inspired Elastomers with Extremely Low Coefficient of Friction under Dry Conditions

December 11, 2020

Author(s)

Mengyuan Wang, Sujan Ghosh, Christopher M. Stafford, Adrienne K. Blevins, Sijia Huang, Jaylene Martinez, Rong Long, Christopher N. Bowman, Jason P. Killgore, Min Zou, Yifu Ding

Shoulder fillet effects in strength distributions of MEMS components

November 6, 2020

Author(s)

Frank W. DelRio, Brad L. Boyce, Jake T. Benzing, Lawrence H. Friedman, Robert F. Cook

The failure forces and fracture strengths of polysilicon MEMS components in the form of stepped tensile bars with shoulder fillets were measured using a