Nonlinearity-Induced Synchronization Enhancement in Micromechanical Oscillators

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

An autonomous oscillator synchronizes to an external harmonic force only when the forcing frequency lies within a certain interval---known as the synchronization range---around the oscillator's natural frequency. Under ordinary conditions, the width of the synchronization range decreases when the oscillation amplitude grows, which constrains synchronized motion of micro- and nanomechanical resonators to narrow frequency and amplitude bounds. Here, we show that nonlinearity in the oscillator can be exploited to manifest a regime where the synchronization range increases with increasing oscillation amplitude. Experimental data are provided for self-sustained micromechanical oscillators operating in this regime, and analytical results show that nonlinearities are the key determinants of this effect. Our results provide a new strategy to enhance the synchronization of micromechanical oscillators by capitalizing on their intrinsic nonlinear dynamics.