Low-temperature anomalies in the dissipation of small mechanical resonators

D. S. Greywall; B. Yurke; P. A. Busch; S. C. Arney

doi:doi:10.1209/epl/i1996-00412-2

Low-temperature anomalies in the dissipation of small mechanical resonators DOI: 10.1209/epl/i1996-00412-2

Europhys. Lett, 34 (1), pp. 37-42 (1996)

Low-temperature anomalies in the dissipation of small mechanical resonators

D. S. Greywall, B. Yurke, P. A. Busch and S. C. Arney

AT&T Bell Laboratories - 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA

(received 16 November 1995; accepted 15 February 1996)

PACS. 62.40+i - Anelasticity, internal friction, stress relaxation, and mechanical resonances.
PACS. 62.65+k - Acoustical properties of solids.
PACS. 72.55+s - Magnetoacoustic effects.

Abstract:

At very low temperatures the dissipation of a mechanical resonator is normally expected to be featureless and to vary slowly with temperature. Here we report measurements made at low-mK temperatures using a simple single-crystal silicon beam with a smallest dimension of 2.5

. Contrary to results obtained on larger resonators these data show a series of dissipation peaks which grow in magnitude with decreasing temperature. One sample exhibited five distinct peaks with equal spacings of 7.7 mK.