Macroscopic quantum tunneling in nanoelectromechanical systems

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© 2011 American Physical Society (APS). This is the accepted version of the following article: Sillanpää, Mika A. & Khan, Raphaël & Heikkilä, Tero T. & Hakonen, Pertti J.. 2011. Macroscopic quantum tunneling in nanoelectromechanical systems. Physical Review B. Volume 84, Issue 19. 195433/1-7. ISSN 1098-0121 (printed). DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.84.195433, which has been published in final form at http://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.195433.

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

School of Science | A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2011

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

195433/1-7

Series

Physical Review B, Volume 84, Issue 19

Abstract

The experimental observation of quantum phenomena in mechanical degrees of freedom is difficult, as the systems become linear toward low energies and the quantum limit, and thus reside in the correspondence limit. Here we investigate how to access quantum phenomena in flexural nanomechanical systems which are strongly deflected by a voltage. Near a metastable point one can achieve a significant nonlinearity in the electromechanical potential at the scale of zero-point energy. The system can then escape from the metastable state via macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT). We consider two model systems suspended atop a voltage gate, namely, a graphene sheet and a carbon nanotube. We find that the experimental demonstration of the phenomenon is currently possible but demanding, since the MQT crossover temperatures fall in the milli-Kelvin range. A carbon nanotube is suggested as the most promising system.

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Keywords

quantum phenomenas, graphene, carbon nanotubes

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Citation

Sillanpää, Mika A. & Khan, Raphaël & Heikkilä, Tero T. & Hakonen, Pertti J.. 2011. Macroscopic quantum tunneling in nanoelectromechanical systems. Physical Review B. Volume 84, Issue 19. 195433/1-7. ISSN 1098-0121 (printed). DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.84.195433.