Mechanical mixing in nonlinear nanomechanical resonators

The physics of nonlinear dynamics has been studied in detail in macroscopic mechanical systems like the driven classical pendulum. By now, it is possi ble to build mechanical devices on the nanometer scale with eigenfrequencie s on the order of several 100 MHz. In this work, we want to present how to machine such nanomechanical resonators out of silicon-on-insulator wafers a nd how to operate them in the nonlinear regime in order to investigate high er-order mechanical mixing at radio frequencies. The nonlinear response the n is compared in detail to nth-order perturbation theory and nonperturbativ e numerical calculations. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-69 51(00)04545-9].