Resonant nonlinear response of a nanomechanical system with broken symmetry

Abstract: We study the response of a weakly damped vibrational mode of a nanostring resonator to a moderately strong resonant driving force. Because of the geometry of the experiment, the studied flexural vibrations lack inversion symmetry. As we show, this leads to a nontrivial dependence of the vibration amplitude on the force parameters. For a comparatively weak force, the response has the familiar Duffing form, but for a somewhat stronger force, it becomes significantly different. Concurrently there emerge vibrations at twice the drive frequency, a signature of the broken symmetry. Their amplitude and phase allow us to establish the cubic nonlinearity of the potential of the mode as the mechanism responsible for both observations. The developed theory goes beyond the standard rotating-wave approximation. It quantitatively describes the experiment and allows us to determine the nonlinearity parameters.