Elastic instability of nanomechanical beams

We report on elastic instability of nanomechanical SiO2 beams with widths 20 nm<d<110 nm and lengths 5 mum<L<10 mum. The beams are fabricated from a silicon substrate with a 500 nm thermal oxide layer. After release from the silicon substrate by reactive ion etching the beams buckle due to the residual Si/SiO2 strain. The measured buckling displacements of the beams are compared with the predictions of nonlinear continuum elasticity theory. We observe a continuous buckling transition, qualitatively different than the critical transition predicted by Euler buckling theory, which we attribute to system asymmetry. Finally, we determine the effective potential energy of the fundamental buckling mode. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.