Hexagonal boron nitride nanomechanical resonators with spatially visualized motion

Atomic layers of hexagonal boron nitride(h-BN)crystal are excellent candidates for structural materials as enabling ultrathin,two-dimensional(2D)nanoelectromechanical systems(NEMS)due to the outstanding mechanical properties and very wide bandgap(5.9 eV)of h-BN.In this work,we report the experimental demonstration of h-BN 2D nanomechanical resonators vibrating at high and very high frequencies(from~5 to~70 MHz),and investigations of the elastic properties of h-BN by measuring the multimode resonant behavior of these devices.First,we demonstrate a dry-transferred doubly clamped h-BN membrane with~6.7 nm thickness,the thinnest h-BN resonator known to date.In addition,we fabricate circular drumhead h-BN resonators with thicknesses ranging from~9 to 292 nm,from which we measure up to eight resonance modes in the range of~18 to 35 MHz.Combining measurements and modeling of the rich multimode resonances,we resolve h-BN’s elastic behavior,including the transition from membrane to disk regime,with built-in tension ranging from 0.02 to 2 N m−1.The Young’s modulus of h-BN is determined to be EY≈392 GPa from the measured resonances.The ultrasensitive measurements further reveal subtle structural characteristics and mechanical properties of the suspended h-BN diaphragms,including anisotropic built-in tension and bulging,thus suggesting guidelines on how these effects can be exploited for engineering multimode resonant functions in 2D NEMS transducers.

Thin ceramic PZT dual-and multi-frequency pMUT arrays for photoacoustic imaging

Miniaturized ultrasonic transducer arrays with multiple frequencies are key components in endoscopic photoacoustic imaging(PAI)systems to achieve high spatial resolution and large imaging depth for biomedical applications.In this article,we report on the development of ceramic thin-film PZT-based dual-and multi-frequency piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer(pMUT)arrays and the demonstration of their PAI applications.With chips sized 3.5mm in length or 10mm in diameter,square and ring-shaped pMUT arrays incorporating as many as 2520 pMUT elements and multiple frequencies ranging from 1 MHz to 8 MHz were developed for endoscopic PAI applications.Thin ceramic PZT with a thickness of 9μm was obtained by wafer bonding and chemical mechanical polishing(CMP)techniques and employed as the piezoelectric layer of the pMUT arrays,whose piezoelectric constant d_(31)was measured to be as high as 140 pm/V.Benefiting from this high piezoelectric constant,the fabricated pMUT arrays exhibited high electromechanical coupling coefficients and large vibration displacements.In addition to electrical,mechanical,and acoustic characterization,PAI experiments with pencil leads embedded into an agar phantom were conducted with the fabricated dual-and multi-frequency pMUT arrays.Photoacoustic signals were successfully detected by pMUT elements with different frequencies and used to reconstruct single and fused photoacoustic images,which clearly demonstrated the advantages of using dual-and multi-frequency pMUT arrays to provide comprehensive photoacoustic images with high spatial resolution and large signal-to-noise ratio simultaneously.