Exotic behavior when mechanical devices reach the nanoscale

Most mechanical resonators damp (slow down) in a well-understood linear manner, but ground-breaking work by Prof. A. Bachtold and his research group at the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology has shown that resonators formed from nanoscale graphene and carbon nanotubes exhibit nonlinear damping, opening up exciting possibilities for super-sensitive detectors of force or mass. Read more »