Fig. 1: Nanomechanical photothermal sensing.
To date, the photothermal effect in nanomechanical resonators has been explored in different fields of application (top row): molecular microscopy (reproduced and cropped from ref. 16--Copyright author(s) 2018, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) and spectroscopy (reproduced and cropped from ref. 25--Copyright 2023 under a CC BY 4.0 license), IR/THz detection (reproduced and cropped from ref. 4--Copyright 2022 under a CC BY 4.0 license), IR-temperature programmed desorption (IR-TPD, reproduced and cropped from ref. 15--Copyright 2023 under a CC BY 4.0 license), and radiative heat transfer mechanisms (adapted with permission from ref. 37--Copyright 2019 by Springer Nature), among others. Within this wealth of studies, different resonator designs have been used (bottom row): strings (reproduced and cropped from ref. 11--Copyright 2016 under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license), drumheads (adapted with permission from ref. 33--Copyright 2023 by AIP Publishing), trampolines (reproduced and cropped from ref. 5--Copyright 2023 under a CC BY 4.0 license), phononic crystal (PnC) geometries on trampolines (reproduced and cropped from ref. 61--Copyright 2020 under a CC BY 4.0 license), and PnC alone (adapted with permission from ref. 64--Copyright 2017 by Springer Nature). Depending on the application, addition of a further layer on top of the sensing area is also possible. Two examples are (central row): thin-film absorber (reproduced and cropped from ref. 65--Copyright 2020 under a CC BY 4.0 license), and metamaterials (reproduced and rearranged from ref. 7--Copyright 2024 under a CC BY 4.0 license)
