The sound of music at the nanoscale——exploring the nanoscale world with nanoelectromechanical systems based on low dimensional nanomaterials

The advent of low-dimensional nanostructures has enabled a plethora of new devices and systems. Among them, nanoelectromechanical systems offer the unique capability of coupling the exquisite material properties found in these atomically-defined nanostructures with their mechanical degrees of freedom, opening new opportunities for exploring exotic phenomena at the nanoscale. In particular, when these devices are driven into mechanical vibration—as in musical instruments—they become essentially nanoscale guitars, drums, etc. By studying the infinitesimal mechanical vibrations in these nanoscale “music instruments”, i.e., listening to the “sound of music” at the nanoscale, researchers can study a number of fundamental physical processes, such as phase transition in low dimensional systems and elastic anisotropy in nanomaterials.