Nano-electromechanical systems

The nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) are nanoscale devices characterized by a strong coupling between electronic current and mechanical vibrations. Usually, they are composed by an electronic system such as a quantum dot (a nanoscale analogue of a transistor) and a nanoscale mechanical system such as a nano-cantilever or a suspended carbon nanotube. These systems attract a lot of interest due to the interesting applications, especially in high precision sensors.

Employing analytical techniques to treat both the electronic current and the out of equilibrium vibrations on equal footing, we are able to obtain the equations describing both the  charge and the out of equilibrium mechanical vibrations.

Nano-electromechanical systems

In the last years we have studied several issues concerning NEMS, such as their current fluctuations, the microscopic nature of the coupling between electrons and longitudinal phonons in suspended carbonanotubes and the possibility to have hysteresis. Recently, we have also considered how such devices may be employed as molecular sensors to detect several different types of molecules.