Temperature-depended mechanical properties of microfabricated vanadium oxide mechanical resonators for thermal sensing

This study describes our newly fabricated resonant thermal sensors based on vanadium oxide and investigates the temperature dependences of their resonant frequencies and Q factor. The suspended vanadium oxide resonators are microfabricated using Au or SiO2 as the sacrificial layer. The resonant frequency of the fabricated vanadium oxide resonators linearly varies with temperature, and the value of temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency is %1308 ppm/K in the range of 20-100 C. The averaged Q factor in this range was 540. The temperature and thermal resolution of the vanadium oxide resonator are estimated as 1.7mK/p and 4.3 nW/p , respectively, which are higher than those of a Si resonator having similar dimensions and under similar conditions. Therefore, the feasibility that vanadium oxide is a promising material for resonant thermal sensors is indicated.