Unusual dimensional dependence of resonance frequencies of Au nanocantilevers fabricated with self-organized microstructure

Metallic nanocantilevers of gold are fabricated from self-supporting polycrystalline thin film (100 nm) by focused ion beam assisted milling and ion induced manipulation processes. The surfactant assisted growth of the thin film leads to self-organized dendrite like morphology. This self-organized dendrite like morphology of the gold film imposes a new characteristic length scale corresponding to the mean size of gold grains present within the branches of the dendrite pattern in the film. The resonance characteristic investigated on cantilevers having different widths shows a significant drop in energy dissipation and hence an enhancement in the resonance amplitude at a characteristic width. At this width the resonance frequency of a vibrating cantilever approaches the theoretically expected value anticipated from an ideal cantilever treated like an elastic continuum.