Piezoelectrically tunable resonance properties of boron nitride nanotube based resonators

J Zhang, JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, 124, 055103 (2018).

DOI: 10.1063/1.5041319

Resonance properties such as the resonance frequency, the sensitivity, and the intrinsic dissipation of boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) based resonators are investigated in this work based on molecular dynamics simulations together with density functional theory calculations. A remarkable resonance property comparable to their carbon nanotube (CNT) counterparts is found in the present BNNT based resonators. Moreover, due to the unique piezoelectric characteristic of BNNTs, the resonance properties of BNNT based resonators can be efficiently tailored by external electric fields. It is found that when a negative electric field is applied, the resonance frequency and the sensitivity of BNNT based resonators can be significantly enhanced. This effect is attributed to the fact that due to the inverse piezoelectric response the applied negative electric field will induce a residual tensile stress in BNNTs and thus enhance their equivalent stiffness. Meanwhile, it is also found that the intrinsic dissipation of BNNT based resonators can be mitigated by a positive external electric field, since under this condition the thermoelastic dissipation and the phonon-phonon scattering of BNNTs are both reduced by the piezoelectric effect. Such unique piezoelectrically tunable resonance properties in BNNT based resonators render them have a broader spectrum of applications than their conventional CNT counterparts. Published by AIP Publishing.

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