Mechanical and vibrational responses of gate-tunable graphene resonator

The vibrational mechanical properties of gate-tunable graphene resonator were investigated in detail using finite element analysis (FEA) and simulation. Treating the graphene resonator as a two-dimensional (2D) thin plate, the relationship between resonance frequency and driving force was explored. The effects of built-in tension, adsorbates and graphene size on the performance of resonator including resonance frequency and tunability were also studied. It was shown that resonance frequency could be tuned by the electrostatically induced average tension due to driving force, and exponentially increased with increasing driving force. When the single-layer graphene resonator without any adsorbates had no or very small built-in tension, the tunability of resonator was greater. However, for a high-frequency-range resonator, the resonator with high built-in tension should be used. The simulation results suggested potential applications of graphene resonators tuned by a driving force, such as widely tunable or ultrahigh frequency nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) devices.