High-Frequency Nanofluidics: An Experimental Study Using Nanomechanical Resonators

Here we apply nanomechanical resonators to the study of oscillatory fluid dynamics. A high-resonance-frequency nanomechanical resonator generates a rapidly oscillating flow in a surrounding gaseous environment; the nature of the flow is studied through the flow-resonator interaction. Over the broad frequency and pressure range explored, we observe signs of a transition from Newtonian to non-Newtonian flow at omega tau approximately 1, where tau is a properly defined fluid relaxation time. The obtained experimental data appear to be in close quantitative agreement with a theory that predicts a purely elastic fluid response as omega tau --> infinity.