Nanosubharmonics: The Dynamics of Small Nonlinear Contacts

Abstract

We observed the generation of subharmonics and chaos in a nanometer-sized mechanical contact. To first order, the behavior matches that of macroscopic systems, with some intriguing secondary differences. As the occurrence of periodic behavior (subharmonics) is related to the coefficient of restitution, it may be possible to image local energy dissipation with nanometer resolution.