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Published April 2006 | public
Journal Article Metadata-only

Zeptogram-Scale Nanomechanical Mass Sensing

Yang, Y. T.
Callegari, C.
Feng, X. L.
Ekinci, K. L.
Roukes, M. L. ORCID icon
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Abstract

Very high frequency (VHF) nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) provide unprecedented sensitivity for inertial mass sensing. We demonstrate in situ measurements in real time with mass noise floor ∼20 zg. Our best mass resolution corresponds to ∼7 zg, equivalent to ∼30 xenon atoms or the mass of an individual 4 kDa molecule. Detailed analysis of the ultimate sensitivity of such devices based on these experimental results indicates that NEMS can ultimately provide inertial mass sensing of individual intact, electrically neutral macromolecules with single-Dalton (1 amu) resolution.

Additional Information

© 2006 American Chemical Society. Received October 29, 2005; Revised Manuscript Received February 5, 2006. Publication Date (Web): March 15, 2006. We gratefully acknowledge support from DARPA MTO under Grant DABT63-98-1-0012, from DARPA/SPAWAR under Grant N66001-02-1-8914, and from the NSF under Grant ECS-0089061.

Additional details

Identifiers Funding Dates
Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 26, 2023