Nanomechanical mass detection using nonlinear oscillations

Nanomechanical resonators have allowed the in vitro molecular recognition. Most of detection is implemented in harmonic oscillation regime, albeit nanomechanical resonators can easily reach the nonlinear oscillation regime. In this letter, we have studied the nanomechanical mass detection using nonlinear oscillators based on continuum elastic model. It is shown that nonlinear oscillation leads to the unique resonant frequency shift due to mass adsorption, quite different from that in harmonic oscillation. Moreover, the effect of mechanical tension on the mass detection in nonlinear oscillation is also discussed. This study highlights the nonlinear oscillation for label-free detection.