8.4 Nonlinear energy decay
8.4.1 Mode-mode coupling
The physical origin of the observed discontinuous decay can be related to a nonlinear decay process. Figures 8.7(a,b) show that the first discontinuity in the decay is related to a peculiar saturation in the spectral response of the vibrational amplitude to the driving force. This saturation is a phenomenon occurring in nanomechanical resonators due to mode-mode coupling over a so-called internal resonance [192, 138]. Indeed, we observe a higher eigenmode with resonance frequency ωhigh= 3 × ωm at the Vg value for which the saturation occurs. Figure 8.8(a) shows the resonant frequency of the lowest energy mechanical modes of device C as a function of the DC voltage Vg applied between the graphene flake and the cavity. The resonant frequencies are extracted from driven spectra recorded with a high driving force amplitude and a high pump power (Vg = 120 µV, Ppump = 13 mW at the input of the cryostat). We identify 7 mechanical modes. Six of them can be clearly resolved from spectral measurements, whereas the mode labeled
8.4. NONLINEAR ENERGY DECAY
Amplitude z (pm) Amplitude z (pm)
Time (ms)
VgAC
Drive frequency (MHz)
a b
Figure 8.7: Relation between kink in energy decay and plateau in spectral mea-surement in device C. (a) Decay trace with an extreme change of the energy decay rate (τ2 ≥ 30 × τ1). The initial decay time is limited by the digital filter bandwidth of 200 kHz.
Shifting the center frequency of the band-pass filter by 30 kHz does not affect the measurement as indicated by the purple and blue traces that are on top of each other. (b) Driven spectra for different mechanical driving voltages VgAC recorded with the same Vg as in a. The spectra show a saturation in the vibrational amplitude. This amplitude is the same as that of the abrupt change of the energy decay in a.
(4) is inferred from the anti-crossing behavior observed in the Vg dependence of the resonant frequency of the modes labeled (5) and (6). In the anti-crossing region shown in Fig. 8.8(b), the vibrations are the result of the hybridization of mode (4) and mode (6).
At Vg = −3.3 V the resonant frequency of this hybridized mode (indicated by the red point in Fig. 8.8(b)) is three times larger than the resonant frequency of the fundamental mode, labeled (1) and shown in Figs. 8.7(a,b).
The abrupt variation of the decay rate is related to nonlinear mode coupling. This can be explained by a model where the fundamental mode hybridizes with other modes of the resonator at high energy [193]. This nonlinear mode-coupling has the peculiarity of enabling energy transfer between vibrational modes even if resonant frequencies are far apart and the coupling strength depends on the vibrational amplitude. For this to happen, the ratio of resonant frequencies ωn/ω1 (ωn is the frequency of a higher order mode) has to be close to an integer n [137, 138, 192]. At high vibrational amplitude, the modes hybridize, and decay in unison with (Γ1+ Γn)/2 (Γ1 (Γn) is the decay rate of the mode at low (high) frequency). At low amplitude, the two modes are decoupled and decay with their individual decay rates. As a result, the flow of energy takes different paths during an energy decay measurement of the fundamental mode. At high amplitude, the energy of the vibrations is transferred into the bath of the fundamental mode directly, and into the vibrations and the bath of the higher order mode and at low amplitude, the dissipation channel to the bath of the higher order mode is closed.
8.4. NONLINEAR ENERGY DECAY
mode (1)
mode (4-6)
environment
Frequency
a b
c
Figure 8.8: Mode spectrum and internal resonance in device C. (a) Fundamental and higher mechanical mode spectrum extracted from driven measurements. (b) Zoom of area marked in a. Around 132.2 MHz and Vg = −3.3 V, the resonance frequency of the mode at ωhigh/2π ≈ 132.3 MHz is commensurate with 3 × ωm of the fundamental mode at high driving (red line).
The extent of the red data point at Vg= −3.3 V indicates the frequency range of the saturation in the driven spectrum of the fundamental mode multiplied by three (Fig. 8.7(b)). By detuning Vg the saturation frequency of the first mode shifts according to the red line. (c) Dissipation channels of mode (1). The dissipation channel through the higher mode (4-6) opens up above a threshold vibration amplitude when ωm= ωhigh/3.
8.5. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
8.5 Conclusions and outlook
The energy decay measurement at the highest vibrational amplitudes in Fig. 8.7(b) can be associated to nonlinear mode-mode coupling. The energy of the first eigenmode is transferred to the higher eigenmode, which is subsequently dissipated into the thermal bath of the higher eigenmode. Below the vibrational amplitude of the saturation, this loss channel is switched off because of the nonlinear nature of the mode-mode coupling [137], resulting in the observed abrupt change of the energy decay. We note that many dis-continuities of the decay are observed without any noticeable saturation in the response.
Some of these discontinuities might be attributed to nonlinear decay processes involving the coupling between multiple quanta of vibrations of the fundamental mode and other degrees of freedom, such as graphene charge carriers and two-level systems, which we con-clude from measurements in the low-amplitude regime [23, 8] (see Secs. 8.3.4 and 8.3.2, respectively).
The unexpected nonlinear energy decay opens up new possibilities to tune dissipation by electrostatic means and to manipulate vibrational states coherently [194, 195]. It will be interesting to study other systems, such as mechanical, electrical, and optical resonators, in order to test the universality of the nonlinear decay process reported in this work.
8.6 Additional information
8.6.1 Device Parameters
Important parameters of the measured devices are summarized in Table 8.1.