Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 65, Number 2, January 2004
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 158 - 164 | |
Section | General | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2003-10064-8 | |
Published online | 01 January 2004 |
Macroscopic quantum effects in nanomechanical systems
1
Center for NanoScience and Sektion Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Theresienstr. 37, D-80333 München, Germany
2
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck Technikerstr. 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Received:
28
July
2003
Accepted:
3
November
2003
We investigate quantum effects in the mechanical properties of
elastic beams on the nanoscale. Transverse quantum and thermal
fluctuations and the nonlinear excitation energies are calculated
for beams compressed in longitudinal direction. Near the Euler
instability, the system is described by a one-dimensional
Ginzburg-Landau model, where the order parameter is the amplitude
of the buckling mode. We show that in single-wall carbon
nanotubes with lengths of the order of or smaller than 100, zero-point fluctuations are accessible, and discuss the possibility of
observing macroscopic quantum coherence in nanobeams near the
critical strain.
PACS: 03.65.-w – Quantum mechanics / 62.25.+g – Mechanical properties of nanoscale materials / 62.30.+d – Mechanical and elastic waves; vibrations
© EDP Sciences, 2004
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.