Simultaneous determination of position and mass of a particle by the vibration of a diaphragm-based nanomechanical resonator

Abstract

We present a theoretical analysis of the vibration of a suspended circular diaphragm resonator with a particle at an arbitrary location when considering the effects of plate stiffness and membrane tension in the diaphragm. The analytical expression relating position and mass of a particle attached on a stretched diaphragm with varying residual stress to the resulting shifts in diaphragm resonant frequency is derived. It has been shown that the particle position and mass for the diaphragm configuration can be unambiguously resolved by combining resonant frequencies of the first three consecutive symmetric vibration modes. This finding is verified numerically in finite element modeling using a freestanding circular diaphragm with and without an added particle, and it proves that the method resolves the particle position and mass with high accuracy.