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Particle number scaling for diffusion-induced dissipation in graphene and carbon nanotube nanomechanical resonators

When a contaminant diffuses on the surface of a nanomechanical resonator, the motions of the two become correlated. Despite being a high-order effect in the resonator-particle coupling, such correlations affect the system dynamics by inducing dissipation of the resonator energy. Here, we consider this diffusion-induced dissipation in the cases of multiple particles adsorbed on carbon nanotube and graphene resonators. By solving the stochastic equations of motion, we simulate the ringdown of the resonator, in order to determine the resonator energy decay rate. We find two different scalings with the number of adsorbed particles $K$ and particle mass $m$. In the regime where the adsorbates are inertially trapped at an antinode of vibration, the dissipation rate $Γ$ scales with the total adsorbed mass $Γ\propto Km$. In contrast, in the regime where particles diffuse freely over the resonator, the dissipation rate scales as the product of the total adsorbed mass and the individual particle mass: $Γ\propto Km^2$.