Researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria and the Technische Universität München in Germany have reported their findings, which will solve a long-standing problem in the design of micro- and nanoelectromechanical resonators, in the journal Nature Communications. The research team developed a finite-element-based numerical solver capable of predicting the design-limited damping of almost arbitrary mechanical resonators to resolve this problem.

''We calculate how elementary mechanical excitations, or phonons, radiate from the mechanical resonator into the supports of the device'', says Garrett Cole, senior researcher in the Aspelmeyer group at the University of Vienna.

This study was funded in part by the following EU projects: MINOS ('Micro- and nano-optomechanical systems for ICT and QPIC'); QESSENCE ('Quantum interfaces, sensors and communication based on Entanglement'); IQOS ('Integrated quantum optomechanical systems'); and QOM ('Quantum optomechanics: quantum foundations and quantum information on the micro- and nanoscale')