A two-dimensional electron gas sensing motion of a nanomechanical cantilever

Abstract. A quantitative physical model, describing the piezoelectric electromechanical coupling in nanomechanical resonators with a two-dimensional electron gas, is developed. Numerical calculations of the change in density of a two-dimensional electron gas contained in a vibrating cantilever are performed using the model and are shown to be consistent with the experiment. The obtained data show that the vibration-induced electron density modulation is localized near the clamping point and that it is related to a rapid spatial change in the mechanical stress near this point. It is shown that details of the clamping geometry significantly affect the magnitude of the effect.