No abstract

Nonlinear mechanical systems promise broadband resonance and instantaneous hysteretic switching that can be used for high sensitivity sensing. However, to introduce nonlinear resonances in widely used microcantilever systems, such as AFM probes, requires driving the cantilever to an amplitude that is too large for any practical applications. We introduce a novel design for a microcantilever with a strong nonlinearity at small cantilever oscillation amplitude arising from the geometrical integration of a single BN nanotube. The dynamics of the system was modeled theoretically and confirmed experimentally. The system, besides providing a practical design of a nonlinear microcantilever-based probe, demonstrates also an effective method of studying the nonlinear damping properties of the attached nanotube. Beyond the typical linear mechanical damping, the nonlinear damping contribution from the attached nanotube was found to be essential for understanding the dynamical behavior of the designed system. Experimental results obtained through laser microvibrometry validated the developed model incorporating the nonlinear damping contribution.

During dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM), the deflection of a scanning cantilever generates multiple frequency terms due to the nonlinear nature of AFM tip-sample interactions. Even though each frequency term is reasonably expected to encode information about the sample, only the fundamental frequency term is typically decoded to provide topographic mapping of the measured surface. One of main reasons for discarding higher harmonic signals is their low signal-to-noise ratio. Here, we introduce a new design concept for multi-harmonic AFM, exploiting intentional nonlinear internal resonance for the enhancement of higher harmonics. The nonlinear internal resonance, triggered by the non-smooth tip-sample dynamic interactions, results in nonlinear energy transfers from the directly excited fundamental bending mode to the higher-frequency mode and, hence, enhancement of the higher harmonic of the measured response. It is verified through detailed theoretical and experimental study that this AFM design can robustly incorporate the required internal resonance and enable high-frequency AFM measurements. Measurements on an inhomogeneous polymer specimen demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed design, namely that the higher harmonic of the measured response is capable of enhanced simultaneous topography imaging and compositional mapping, exhibiting less crosstalk with an abrupt height change.

Multi-vibrational-mode electrostatic energy harvesters are designed and micro-machined utilizing a simple silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer-based process. Enhanced adaptability to various vibrational environments is achieved in the proposed design by using serpentine springs attached to the fishbone-shaped inertial mass. The experimental results show that the developed device could convert an input vibration of 6 g at 1272 Hz to 2.96, 3.28, and 2.30 μW for different vibrational directions of 0°, 30°, and 45° with respect to a reference direction, respectively, when all serpentine springs are identical. An alternative device design using serpentine springs with different stiffnesses between x- and y-axes exhibited resonance frequencies at 1059 and 1635 Hz for an input vibrational direction of 45° and acceleration amplitude of 4 g, successfully generating 0.723 and 0.927 μW of electrical power at each resonance, respectively.

This thesis presents the design, analytical and numerical modeling, fabrication and characterization of a hybrid tip-tilt-piston micromirror driven by electrostatic actuation. The micromirror involves a single crystal silicon mirror and a conductive elastomeric universal joint which are mechanically bonded and electrically interconnected. This device takes advantage of two distinct materials to achieve a high quality reflective surface using single crystal silicon and a highly flexible joint using an elastomer. To realize this hybrid system, micro-masonry techniques are employed such that silicon and elastomer parts are fabricated separately and integrated afterwards. The static and dynamic behaviors of the micromirror are characterized, indicating identical response about its two orthogonal scanning axes. Furthermore, the piston stroke utilized by the compressive deformation of the elastomeric joint along z-axis is investigated.iii