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Published December 2008 | public
Journal Article

Atomic-Scale Mass Sensing Using Carbon Nanotube Resonators

Abstract

Ultraminiaturized mass spectrometers are highly sought-after tools, with numerous applications in areas such as environmental protection, exploration, and drug development. We realize atomic scale mass sensing using doubly clamped suspended carbon nanotube nanomechanical resonators, in which their single-electron transistor properties allows self-detection of the nanotube vibration. We use the detection of shifts in the resonance frequency of the nanotubes to sense and determine the inertial mass of atoms as well as the mass of the nanotube. This highly sensitive mass detection capability may eventually enable applications such as on-chip detection, analysis, and identification of compounds.

Additional Information

Copyright © 2008 American Chemical Society. Received July 19, 2008; Revised Manuscript Received September 25, 2008. Publication Date (Web): November 18, 2008. We thank C. N. Lau, D. H. Cobden, Z. H. Wang, O. Vilches, A. Bachtold, X. L. Feng, J. S. Gao, H. Maune, and I. Kozinsky for helpful discussions. We thank M. Gerfen for the cryostat construction. We thank P. Kelly, N. Asplund, S. Mitrovic, and C. Hughes for helpful discussions concerning the cryostat design. We thank the Micro/Nano Fabrication Laboratory and the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech, the Center For Nanoscale Science and Engineering at UCR, and the Nanoelectronics Research Facility at UCLA where the sample fabrication was performed. M.B. acknowledges support by funding from NSF-NRI, the Ross Brown Foundation, and ONR.

Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 17, 2023