Preface: Special issue on applications of nonlinear resonances to microscale and nanoscale systems

Abstract

Resonators are very important mechanical parts in sensors to detect mass, force, acceleration, angular rate and viscosity, in mechanical filters, energy harvesters, so on. The enhancement for their performances has been carried out mainly by modifications of the fabrication methods with material design. However, it appears that such improvements approach their limit. In such a situation, it is valuable to consider the breakthroughs from the viewpoint of dynamics. In most MEMS and NEMS resonators, the resonances under linear external or forced excitations have been applied to date. Recently, in order to advance the sensitivity and feasibility muchmore, it is receivedmuch attention to utilize resonances other than the above conventional resonance phenomena, for example, parametric resonance, self-excited oscillation, nonlinear resonance as subharmonic and superharmonic resonances, and so on. Such resonances can easily emerge the variety of dynamics through bifurcation phenomena, because the number and the stability of the equilibrium points and periodic orbits are changed depending on the variation of system parameters. Such variations of dynamics are attributed to the enhancement of the performance of Microscale and Nanoscale systems. The special issue focuses on the analysis and utilization of various resonances other than the conventional ones in linear dynamic systems and nonlinear phenomena including mode localization.Warminski investigates nonlinear phenomena in MEMS devices modelled as van-der Pol–Mathieu–Duffing oscillator. It has recently known that the dynamics of resonators with atomic scale cannot be described by linear