We present a comprehensive study of nanoelectromechanical systems in pressurized fluids. Resonant responses and quality factors are monitored in five different gases and one liquid, in pressures ranging from vacuum to 20 MPa, in order to evaluate theoretical models of device-fluid interactions at the nanoscale. The traditional Newell picture of microresonator damping in different pressure regimes is found to be inadequate in describing nanoresonators in general. Damping at intermediate pressure ranges is better physically characterized by a Weissenberg number (which compares oscillation frequencies with fluid relaxation rates) than a Knudsen number (which compares mean free paths with device widths) and most adequately described by the Yakhot and Colosqui model. At high-pressure ranges, two models are found to give good agreement with data: the phenomenological model of vibrating spheres and the Sader and Bhiladvala model for the viscous regime. The latter is also successful in explicitly predicting pressure-dependent behavior of the viscous mass load and damping. We observe significant increases in damping due to the squeezed film (SF) of gas between the device and substrate as well as due to undercut (an unavoidable artifact of the standard fabrication technique); correcting the shape of the devices with a focused ion beam allows us to differentiate these two factors. Application of the SF model accounts well for additional damping at high pressures while only qualitatively agreeing at lower pressures. The extensive data collected allow additional insight into fundamental processes underlying fluid damping at the nanoscale, particularly in the intermediate- and high-pressure regimes.

• Received 16 January 2012
• Corrected 1 June 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.056313