Nonexponential relaxation in the rotating frame of a driven nanomechanical mode

Hyunjin Choi; Oriel Shoshani; Ryundon Kim; Younghun Ryu; Jinhoon Jeong; Junho Suh; Steven W. Shaw; M. I. Dykman; Hyoungsoon Choi

doi:10.1103/xhll-lhcj

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Nonexponential relaxation in the rotating frame of a driven nanomechanical mode

Hyunjin Choi ¹, Oriel Shoshani ^2,*, Ryundon Kim¹, Younghun Ryu^1,†, Jinhoon Jeong ^1,‡, Junho Suh ³, Steven W. Shaw ^4,5,6, M. I. Dykman ⁶, and Hyoungsoon Choi ^1,7,§

¹Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
²Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva 84105, Israel
³Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea
⁴Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida 32901, USA
⁵Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
⁶Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
⁷Graduate School of Quantum Science and Technology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea

^*Contact author: oriels@bgu.ac.il
^†Present address: Institute of Physics and Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, École Polytéchnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.
^‡Present address: QTF Centre of Excellence, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
^§Contact author: h.choi@kaist.ac.kr

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Phys. Rev. B 113, L060301 – Published 2 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xhll-lhcj

Abstract

We present direct observation of the ringdown dynamics in the rotating frame of a resonantly driven single-mode nonlinear nanomechanical resonator. An additional close-to-resonance harmonic force excites nonlinear oscillations about the fixed point in the rotating frame. When the secondary drive is removed, we measure decay of the in-phase and quadrature components toward this fixed point. We show that the decay of the in-phase signal is nonexponential, even though the vibration amplitude decays exponentially if both forces are switched off, revealing an unexpected interplay between conservative nonlinearity and dissipation. A minimalistic model captures these dynamics as well as the spectrum of the vibrations excited by the additional force, relating them to the dissipation-induced symmetry breaking of the dynamics in the rotating frame.

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Nonexponential relaxation in the rotating frame of a driven nanomechanical mode

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Nonexponential relaxation in the rotating frame of a driven nanomechanical mode

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