Measuring true Young's modulus of a cantilevered nanowire: effect of clamping on resonance frequency.

The effect of clamping on resonance frequency and thus measured Young's modulus of nanowires (NWs) is systematically investigated via a combined experimental and simulation approach. ZnO NWs are used in this work as an example. The resonance tests are performed in situ inside a scanning electron microscope and the NWs are cantilevered on a tungsten probe by electron-beam-induced deposition (EBID) of hydrocarbon. EBID is repeated several times to deposit more hydrocarbons at the same location. The resonance frequency increases with the increasing clamp size until approaching that under the "fixed" boundary condition. The critical clamp size is identified as a function of NW diameter and NW Young's modulus. This work: 1) exemplifies the importance of considering the effect of clamping in measurements of Young's modulus using the resonance method, and 2) demonstrates that the true Young's modulus can be measured if the critical clamp size is reached. Design guidelines on the critical clamp size are provided. Such design guidelines can be extended to other one-dimensional nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes.

Acoustic streaming induced by ultrasonic flexural vibrations and associated enhancement of convective heat transfer.

Acoustic streaming induced by ultrasonic flexural vibrations and the associated convection enhancement are investigated. Acoustic streaming pattern, streaming velocity, and associated heat transfer characteristics are experimentally observed. Moreover, analytical analysis based on Nyborg's formulation is performed along with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation using a numerical solver CFX 4.3. Two distinctive acoustic streaming patterns in half-wavelength of the flexural vibrations are observed, which agree well with the theory. However, acoustic streaming velocities obtained from CFD simulation, based on the incompressible flow assumption, exceed the theoretically estimated velocity by a factor ranging from 10 to 100, depending upon the location along the beam. Both CFD simulation and analytical analysis reveal that the acoustic streaming velocity is proportional to the square of the vibration amplitude and the wavelength of the vibrating beam that decreases with the excitation frequency. It is observed that the streaming velocity decreases with the excitation frequency. Also, with an open-ended channel, a substantial increase in streaming velocity is observed from CFD simulations. Using acoustic streaming, a temperature drop of 40 degrees C with a vibration amplitude of 25 microm at 28.4 kHz is experimentally achieved.