Based on a continuum mechanical model for single-layer graphene we propose and analyze a microscopic mechanism for dissipation in nanoelectromechanical graphene resonators. We find that coupling between flexural modes and in-plane phonons leads to linear and nonlinear damping of out-of-plane vibrations. By tuning external parameters such as bias and ac voltages, one can cross over from a linear to a nonlinear-damping dominated regime. We discuss the behavior of the effective quality factor in this context.
@article{arxiv.1204.0911,
title = {Nonlinear Damping in Graphene Resonators},
author = {Alexander Croy and Daniel Midtvedt and Andreas Isacsson and Jari M. Kinaret},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.0911},
year = {2012}
}