| The phenomenon of stochastic resonance is a counter-intuitive one: adding noise to a noisy nonlinear system under the influence of a modulation results in coherent behavior. The signature of the effect is a resonance in the signal-to-noise ratio of the response over a certain range of noise power; this behavior is absent if either the modulation or the noise are absent. Stochastic resonance has attracted considerable interest over the past several decades, having been seen in a great number of physical and biological systems. Here, observation of stochastic resonance is reported for nanomechanical systems consisting of a doubly-clamped beam resonators fabricated from single-crystal silicon. Such oscillators have been found to display nonlinear and bistable behavior under the influence of large driving forces. This bistability is exploited to produce a controllable nanomechanical switch, a device that may be used as the basis for a new generation of computational memory elements. These oscillators possess large intrinsic resonance frequencies (MHz range or higher) due to their small size and relatively high stiffness; thus they have the potential to rival the current state-of-the-art of electronic and magnetic storage technologies. This small size also allows them to be packed in densities which meet or exceed the superparamagnetic limit for magnetic storage media of 100 GB/in2.; Two different doubly-clamped beams were cooled to low temperatures (300 mK--4 K), and excited with a magnetomotive technique. They were driven into the nonlinear response regime, and then modulated to induce switching between their bistable states. When the modulation was reduced, the switching died out. Application of noise, either with an external broadband source or via an increase in temperature, resulted in a distinct resonance in the signal-to-noise ratio. Aside from establishing the phenomenon of stochastic resonance in yet another physical system, the observation of this effect has more far-reaching consequences. Stochastic resonance may very well play an important role in signal processing for these and similar memory elements. The low temperatures attained for these experiments open up the possibility of exploring quantum stochastic resonance, and the ability of noise to aid in the development and manipulation of quantum information. |
