Telegraph frequency noise in electromechanical resonators

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally the possibility of revealing fluctuations in the eigenfrequency of a resonator when the frequency noise is of the telegraph type. Using a resonantly driven micromechanical resonator, we show that the time-averaged vibration amplitude spectrum exhibits two peaks. They merge with an increasing rate of frequency switching and the spectrum displays an analog of motional narrowing. We also show that the moments of the complex amplitude depend strongly on the frequency noise characteristics. This dependence remains valid even when strong thermal or detector noise is present.