Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 32: Nanomechanical systems (joint session HL/TT)

TT 32.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 10:15–10:30, POT/0051

Sensing local temperature changes of a silicon nitride nanomembrane under large-amplitude vibration — •Valentin Barth, Mengqi Fu, and Elke Scheer — University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

In MEMS and NEMS, changes in environmental conditions (e.g., a global change in temperature [1]) can alter the motion properties of silicon nitride (SiN) membranes. Vibrational motion may cause the membrane to experience local heating effects.
SiN square membranes (side length: 450 µm, thickness: 500 nm) are used and driven with a piezoelectric actuator. The motion is monitored using digital holographic microscopy. The measurements are carried out with a strong drive, resulting in vibration amplitudes on the order of hundreds of nanometers. Local temperatures are measured via the Seebeck effect using permalloy (Ni₈₁Fe₁₉) and gold as thermocouple, which provides a sensitivity of 20 µV/K and is suitable for micrometer-scale measurements [2]. To improve the signal-to-noise ratio and suppress unwanted contributions, the measurement is performed with a lock-in amplifier, where the temperature signal is demodulated at twice the drive frequency. The measured temperature depends on both the position of the thermometer and the vibration amplitude, with values reaching up to 0.5 mK. Besides the temperature signal of the membrane, signals caused by vibrations from neighboring membranes (distanced 1.5 mm) are also detected.
[1] F. Yang et al., Sens. Actuators A Phys. 354, 114307 (2023).
[2] F. L. Bakker et al., J. Appl. Phys. 111, 084509, (2012)

Keywords: Membranresonator; Temperature; Seebeck