We investigate theoretically multi-mode electromechanical "shuttle" instabilities in DC voltage-biased nanoelectromechanical single-electron tunneling (NEM-SET) devices. We show that initially irregular (quasi-periodic) oscillations, that occur as a result of the simultaneous self-excitation of several mechanical modes with incommensurable frequencies, self-organize into periodic oscillations with a frequency corresponding to the eigenfrequency of one of the unstable modes. This effect demonstrates that a local probe can selectively excite global vibrations of extended objects.
@article{arxiv.0710.3300,
title = {Self-organization of irregular NEM vibrations in multi-mode shuttle structures},
author = {L. M. Jonsson and F. Santandrea and L. Y. Gorelik and R. I. Shekhter and M. Jonson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.3300},
year = {2011}
}