title: Generating giant and tunable nonlinearity in a macroscopic mechanical resonator from a single chemical bond.
abstract: Nonlinearity in macroscopic mechanical systems may lead to abundant phenomena for fundamental studies and potential applications. However, it is difficult to generate nonlinearity due to the fact that macroscopic mechanical systems follow Hooke's law and respond linearly to external force, unless strong drive is used. Here we propose and experimentally realize high cubic nonlinear response in a macroscopic mechanical system by exploring the anharmonicity in chemical bonding interactions. We demonstrate the high tunability of nonlinear response by precisely controlling the chemical bonding interaction, and realize, at the single-bond limit, a cubic elastic constant of 1 × 10(20) N m(-3). This enables us to observe the resonator's vibrational bi-states transitions driven by the weak Brownian thermal noise at 6 K. This method can be flexibly applied to a variety of mechanical systems to improve nonlinear responses, and can be used, with further improvements, to explore macroscopic quantum mechanics.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Pu
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Jingwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9466-2053
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Shaochun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Changkui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Chenyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.|Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Jiangfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du