Nanoscale structures can have a rich range of dynamic behaviors arising from their low damping, large amplitudes of motion, nonlinear electrostatic forcing and interaction with light. This project will explore the dynamics of arrays of nanoscale beams driven inertially or thermo-optically and coupled to each other through DC and AC electrostatic fields. The work is exploratory, designed to scope out the basic governing equations, to discover the range of dynamics that such arrays might exhibit and to design possible experiments based on these discoveries. The student working on this project will use theory and computational simulation to derive the equations and their coefficients and to analyze the resulting systems of equations.
For more information contact Prof. Zehnder (ATZ2@cornell.edu)