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Thermal noise of a cryocooled silicon cantilever locally heated up to its melting point

Alex Fontana, Richard Pedurand, Vincent Dolique, Ghaouti Hansali, and Ludovic Bellon
Phys. Rev. E 103, 062125 – Published 15 June 2021
Physics logo See synopsis: Cantilever Experiments Update Description of Thermal Noise  

Abstract

The Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem (FDT) is a powerful tool to estimate the thermal noise of physical systems in equilibrium. In general, however, thermal equilibrium is an approximation or cannot be assumed at all. A more general formulation of the FDT is then needed to describe the behavior of the fluctuations. In our experiment we study a microcantilever brought out of equilibrium by a strong heat flux generated by the absorption of the light of a laser. While the base is kept at cryogenic temperatures, the tip is heated up to the melting point, thus creating the highest temperature difference the system can sustain. We independently estimate the temperature profile of the cantilever and its mechanical fluctuations as well as its dissipation. We then demonstrate how the thermal fluctuations of all the observed degrees of freedom, though increasing with the heat flux, are much lower than what is expected from the average temperature of the system. We interpret these results using a minimal extension of the FDT: this dearth of thermal noise arises from a dissipation shared between clamping losses and distributed damping.

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  • Received 19 January 2021
  • Accepted 27 April 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.103.062125

©2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Statistical Physics & ThermodynamicsGravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

synopsis

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Cantilever Experiments Update Description of Thermal Noise  

Published 15 June 2021

Multiple sources of mechanical dissipation seem to explain why a cantilever subject to an extreme temperature gradient has less thermal noise than theory predicts. 

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Authors & Affiliations

Alex Fontana1, Richard Pedurand1,2, Vincent Dolique1, Ghaouti Hansali3,2, and Ludovic Bellon1,*

  • 1Univ Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique, F-69342 Lyon, France
  • 2Laboratoire des Matériaux Avancés-IP2I, CNRS, Université de Lyon, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France
  • 3Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Saint-Etienne (ENISE), F-42100 Saint-Étienne, France

  • *Corresponding author: ludovic.bellon@ens-lyon.fr

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Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 6 — June 2021

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