Dissipation and fluctuations in nanoelectromechanical systems based on carbon nanotubes

The tribological characteristics of nanotube-based nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) exemplified by a gigahertz oscillator are studied. Various factors that influence the tribological properties of nanotube-based NEMS are quantitatively analyzed with the use of molecular dynamics calculations of the quality factor (Q-factor) of the gigahertz oscillator. We demonstrate that commensurability of the nanotube walls can increase the dissipation rate, while the structure of the wall ends and the nanotube length do not influence the Q-factor. It is shown that the dissipation rate depends on the interwall distance and the way of fixation of the outer wall, and is significant in the case of a poor fixation for nanotubes with a large interwall distance. Defects are found to strongly decrease the Q-factor due to the excitation of low-frequency vibrational modes. No universal correlation between the static friction forces and the energy dissipation rate is established. We propose an explanation of the obtained results on the basis of the classical theory of vibrational-translational relaxation. Significant thermodynamics fluctuations are revealed in the gigahertz oscillator by molecular dynamics simulations and they are analyzed in the framework of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The possibility of designing NEMS with a desirable Q-factor and their applications are discussed on the basis of the above results.