A mechanical nanosensor in the Gigahertz range-where mechanics meets electronics

Abstract To overcome the limits which are intrinsic to standard macroscopic cantilevers and to have structures possessing, in concomitance, mechanical resonance frequencies of the order of the GHz and spring constants around the N m , we propose the use of tips ending with a nanoscale filiform constriction and a solid drop. We show that such tips were obtained by a surface diffusion mechanism in a reproducible manner. Using a model to describe such a structure, which is a nanocantilever, the mechanical characteristics were calculated with the known bulk parameters. Estimations using known equations show then the possibility to use such nanocantilevers as mechanical sensors to measure mass variations of few atoms.