Controlling stiction in nano-electro-mechanical systems using liquid crystals
Controlling stiction in nano-electro-mechanical systems using liquid crystals
Stiction is one of the major reliability issues limiting practical application of nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS), an emerging device technology that exploits mechanical movements on the scale of an integrated electronic circuit. We report on a discovery that stiction can be eliminated by infiltrating NEMS with nematic liquid crystals. We demonstrate this experimentally using a NEMS-based tunable photonic metamaterial, where reliable switching of optical response was achieved for the entire range of nanoscopic structural displacements admitted by the metamaterial design. Being a more straightforward and easy-to-implement alternative to the existing antistiction solutions, our approach also introduces an active mechanism of stiction control, which enables toggling between stiction-free and the usual (stiction-limited) regimes of NEMS operation. It is expected to greatly expand the functionality of electro-mechanical devices and enable the development of adaptive and smart nanosystems.
11519-11524
Buchnev, Oleksandr
60cdb0d2-3388-47be-a066-61b3b396f69d
Podoliak, Nina
0908b951-00a7-48a5-bc82-631640910b9c
Frank, Thomas
3d1aae1b-7dd5-4ee3-8f06-c5a7f0acbe6f
Kaczmarek, Malgosia
408ec59b-8dba-41c1-89d0-af846d1bf327
Jiang, Liudi
374f2414-51f0-418f-a316-e7db0d6dc4d1
Fedotov, Vassili
3725f5cc-2d0b-4e61-95c5-26d187c84f25
27 December 2016
Buchnev, Oleksandr
60cdb0d2-3388-47be-a066-61b3b396f69d
Podoliak, Nina
0908b951-00a7-48a5-bc82-631640910b9c
Frank, Thomas
3d1aae1b-7dd5-4ee3-8f06-c5a7f0acbe6f
Kaczmarek, Malgosia
408ec59b-8dba-41c1-89d0-af846d1bf327
Jiang, Liudi
374f2414-51f0-418f-a316-e7db0d6dc4d1
Fedotov, Vassili
3725f5cc-2d0b-4e61-95c5-26d187c84f25
Buchnev, Oleksandr, Podoliak, Nina, Frank, Thomas, Kaczmarek, Malgosia, Jiang, Liudi and Fedotov, Vassili
(2016)
Controlling stiction in nano-electro-mechanical systems using liquid crystals.
ACS Nano, 10 (12), .
(doi:10.1021/acsnano.6b07495).
Abstract
Stiction is one of the major reliability issues limiting practical application of nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS), an emerging device technology that exploits mechanical movements on the scale of an integrated electronic circuit. We report on a discovery that stiction can be eliminated by infiltrating NEMS with nematic liquid crystals. We demonstrate this experimentally using a NEMS-based tunable photonic metamaterial, where reliable switching of optical response was achieved for the entire range of nanoscopic structural displacements admitted by the metamaterial design. Being a more straightforward and easy-to-implement alternative to the existing antistiction solutions, our approach also introduces an active mechanism of stiction control, which enables toggling between stiction-free and the usual (stiction-limited) regimes of NEMS operation. It is expected to greatly expand the functionality of electro-mechanical devices and enable the development of adaptive and smart nanosystems.
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LC-NEMS Supp Nano accepted.pdf
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 20 November 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 November 2016
Published date: 27 December 2016
Organisations:
Optoelectronics Research Centre, Quantum, Light & Matter Group
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 403126
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/403126
ISSN: 1936-0851
PURE UUID: d379da18-c7e4-4810-b86f-f7330e55f444
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Date deposited: 24 Nov 2016 15:08
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:47
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Contributors
Author:
Oleksandr Buchnev
Author:
Nina Podoliak
Author:
Thomas Frank
Author:
Vassili Fedotov
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