Through molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate the possibility of internal resonances in single-walled carbon nanotubes. The resonant condition is engineered with a lack of symmetry in the boundary condition and activated by increasing the energy exchange with a coupled thermal bath. The critical temperature threshold for initiating modal interaction is found to be chirality-dependent. By applying the proper orthogonal decomposition algorithm to molecular dynamics time responses, we show how the thermal fluctuations influence the vibrational behaviour of the nanotube leading to both flexural–flexural and flexural–longitudinal resonances. Understanding the interaction between nanotube resonators and the thermal bath is crucial for designing and optimizing their performance for various nanoscale sensing, actuation, and signal processing applications.

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This study examines the nonlinear dynamics in tapping-mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) with tip-surface interactions that include van der Waals and Derjaguin-Muller- € Toporov contact forces. We investigate the periodic solutions of the hybrid system by performing numerical pseudo-arclength continuation. Through the use of bifurcation locus maps in the set of parameters of the discontinuous model, the overall dynamical response scenario is assessed. We demonstrate the influence of various dissipation mechanisms that are related with the AFM touching or lacking contact with the sample. Local and global analyses are used to investigate the stability of the stable solution in the repulsive regime. The impacting nonsmooth dynamics framed within a higher-mode Galerkin discretization is able to capture windows of irregular and complex motion.

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Modal interactions are pervasive effects that commonly emerge in nanomechanical systems. The coupling of vibrating modes can be leveraged in many ways, including to enhance sensing or to disclose complex phenomenologies. In this work we show how machine learning and data-driven approaches could be used to capture intermodal coupling. We employ a quasi-recurrent neural network (QRNN) for identifying mode coupling and verify its applicability on experimental data obtained from tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM). Hidden units of the QRNN are monitored to trace fingerprints of modes activation and to quantify their contributions over the global distortion of orbits in the phase space. To demonstrate the broad applicability of the method, the trained model is re-applied over different experiments and on diverse materials. Over a range of tip-sample configurations, dynamic AFM possesses features general enough to be seized by the QRNN and it is not required an ad-hoc re-training for the identification of interacting modes. Our study opens up a route for utilizing established machine learning techniques for rapid recognition of nonlinear complex effect such as internal resonances in nanotechnology. The QRNN analysis is meant to assist AFM sensing operations when exploiting modal interaction to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of higher harmonics and provide high resolution compositional contrast in multi-frequency AFM applications.

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This paper investigates the nonlinear dynamics in tapping-mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) with tip-surface interactions that include Van der Waals and Derjaguin-Müller-Toporov contact forces. We study the periodic solutions of the hybrid system by performing numerical pseudo-arclength continuation. The overall dynamical response scenario is evaluated via bifurcation loci maps in the set of parameters of the discontinuous model. We showcase the influence of different dissipation mechanisms activated when the AFM is in contact or out-of contact with the sample. The robustness of the stable solution in the repulsive regime is studied via local and global analyses. The impacting non-smooth dynamics framed within a higher-mode Galerkin discretization is able to capture windows of irregular and complex motion.

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Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in dynamic atomic force microscopy plays a key role in nanomechanical mapping of materials with atomic resolution. In this work, we develop an experimental procedure for increasing the sensitivity of higher harmonics of an atomic-force-microscope cantilever without modifying the cantilever geometry but instead by utilizing dynamical mode coupling between its flexural modes of vibration. We perform experiments on different cantilevers and samples and observe that via nonlinear resonance frequency tuning we can obtain a frequency range where strong modal interactions lead to 7-fold and 16-fold increases in the sensitivity of the 6th and 17th harmonics while reducing sample indentation. We derive a numerical model that captures the observed physics and confirms that nonlinear mode coupling is the reason for the increase of the amplitude of higher harmonics during tip-sample interactions.

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This paper investigates the complex bifurcation scenario of electrically-actuated circular micro-plates subjected to differential pressure. Our analysis deals with the primary, secondary and ultimate saddle-node bifurcation points responsible for the device snap-through and addresses the pressure range in which the robustness of the two main stable configurations is undermined by minor coexisting attractors. By making use of basins of attraction and integrity profiles, safe dynamical regions of motion are evaluated with respect to the applied DC voltage. It is found that period-doubling bifurcations are accountable for a sensible reduction in the dynamical integrity, small variations of the DC voltage largely modify the response of the pressure sensor.

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Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are used in applications ranging from consumer electronics to medical diagnostics. Alternatively, optical sensors offer low-noise, remote read-out via optical fiber, and are insensitive to electromagnetic interference. We demonstrate micro-opto-mechanical sensors (MOMS) in siliconnitride photonic technology. Experimental results and design trade-offs of pressure, sound, and ultrasound sensors are reported. Transparency for visible light offers prospective applications in life sciences, such as photo-acoustics.@en

In the presence of more than one stable state, assessment of stability is crucial for a proper device characterization. This is of particular importance in atomic force microscopy due to rich dynamics exhibited by the oscillating microcantilever probe that interacts with a sample. Indeed, the multistability can evolve in dramatic regime changes. This work aims at investigating the stochastic switching in which perturbations are responsible for shifts between alternative states with consequences in imaging and spectroscopy. The deceptively straightforward identification of the stability highlights noise-activated escapes. The barrier crossing from metastable wells in the atomic force microscopy leading to problematic configurations are observed in a variety of different configurations with the stochastic resonance as ultimate condition. Our analysis sheds light on the effect of combined additive noise and external excitation. The noise-induced erosion of the attractive domain shows a progressive reduction of the dynamical integrity of amplitude modulation atomic force microscopes.@en

Global properties of Multi-Degrees-of-Freedom (M-DoF) systems, in particular phase space organization, are largely unexplored due to the computational challenge requested to build basins of attraction. To overcome this problem, various techniques have been developed, some trying to improve algorithms and to exploit high speed computing, others giving up to possibility of having the exact phase space organization and trying to extract major information on a probability base. Following the last approach, this work exploits the method of “basin stability” (Menck et al., 2013) in order to drastically reduce the numerical effort. The probability of reaching the attractors is evaluated using a reasonable number of trials with random initial conditions. Then we investigate how this probability depends on particular generalized coordinate or a pair of coordinates. The method allows to obtain information about the basins compactness and reveals particular features of the phase space topology. We focus the study on a 2-DoF multistable paradigmatic system represented by a parametric pendulum on a moving support and model of a Church Bell. The trustworthiness of the proposed approach is enhanced through the comparison with the classical computation of basins of attraction performed in the full range of initial conditions. The proposed approach can be effectively utilized to investigate the phase space in multidimensional nonlinear dynamical systems by providing additional insights over traditional methods.

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Numerical integrations represent a time-consuming element in the long-term dynamics analysis of mechanical systems. This limits the resolution of the computations and the dimension of the system to be investigated numerically. In fact, even pushing memory resources to their thresholds, only few tools can deal with higher-dimensional systems. This work illustrates, in a preliminary manner, the results that can be obtained reducing the aforementioned constraints thanks to the implementation of algorithms based on a parallel computing approach. In particular, by focusing on basins of attraction, four applications are discussed. i) The full domain of attraction for a four-dimensional (4D) system describing a linear oscillator coupled with a nonlinear absorber is calculated. ii) The variation of a safe basin with respect to the system dimension is then analyzed. It is highlighted how 4D and 3D analyses provide more confident results with respect to 2D analyses. iii) The parametric variation of a 2D system with a reduced step is performed by building a 3D representation which allows to highlight a smooth transition between the states. iv) A convergence study of a basin of attraction resolution is carried out. The integrity factor is used as a comparison measure.

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