Murali Krishna Ghatkesar et al 2007 Nanotechnology 18 445502 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/18/44/445502
Murali Krishna Ghatkesar1,3, Viola Barwich1,3, Thomas Braun1,3, Jean-Pierre Ramseyer1, Christoph Gerber1, Martin Hegner1, Hans Peter Lang1,2, Ute Drechsler2 and Michel Despont2
Show affiliationsWe evaluated the potential and limitations of resonating nanomechanical microcantilevers for the detection of mass adsorption. As a test system we used mass addition of gold layers of varying thickness. Our main findings are: (1) A linear increase in mass sensitivity with the square of the mode number—a sensitivity increase of two orders of magnitude is obtained from mode 1 to mode 7 with a minimum sensitivity of 8.6 ag Hz−1 µm−2 and mass resolution of 0.43 pg at mode 7 for a 1 µm thick cantilever. (2) The quality factor increases with the mode number, thus helping to achieve a higher sensitivity. (3) The effective spring constant of the cantilever remains constant for deposition of gold layers up to at least 4% of the cantilever thickness.
46.40.-f Vibrations and mechanical waves
Surfaces, interfaces and thin films
Issue 44 (7 November 2007)
Received 17 July 2007, in final form 14 September 2007
Published 9 October 2007
Murali Krishna Ghatkesar et al 2007 Nanotechnology 18 445502
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