Enhanced sensitivity and tunability of thermomechanical resonance near the buckling bifurcation

Abstract The high susceptibility of ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) material resonators to force and temperature makes them ideal systems for sensing applications and exploring thermomechanical coupling. Although the dynamics of these systems at high stress has been thoroughly investigated, their behavior near the buckling transition has received less attention. Here, we demonstrate that the force sensitivity and frequency tunability of 2D material resonators are significantly enhanced near the buckling bifurcation. This bifurcation is triggered by compressive displacement that we induce via thermal expansion of the devices, while measuring their dynamics via an optomechanical technique. We understand the frequency tuning of the devices through a mechanical buckling model, which allows to extract the central deflection and boundary compressive displacement of the membrane. Surprisingly, we obtain a remarkable enhancement of up to 14× the vibration amplitude attributed to a very low stiffness of the membrane at the buckling transition, as well as a high frequency tunability by temperature of more than 4.02% K⁻¹. The presented results provide insights into the effects of buckling on the dynamics of free-standing 2D materials and thereby open up opportunities for the realization of 2D resonant sensors with buckling-enhanced sensitivity.