Role of dissipation dilution in achieving high mechanical quality factors in van der Waals resonators
Abstract
Dissipation dilution has driven a revolution in the quality factors (Q) of top-down nanomechanical resonators. Yet it has not been leveraged for van der Waals (vdW) materials. Here we report quality factors up to 372,000±37,000 in monolayer MoS2 drums at 4 K, nearly an order of magnitude beyond the previous best for any vdW material at this temperature, enabled by a clean, polymer-free exfoliation technique. We develop a dissipation-dilution model for circular drums and analyze the contributing intrinsic and extrinsic dissipation mechanisms. The MoS2 monolayer exhibits a dilution factor of order $1,000$, establishing sub-nanometer-thin resonators as ultimate dilution materials. The intrinsic quality factor, however, is limited by surface losses at atomic thickness. Conversely, multilayer drums show a lower dilution factor but a high intrinsic quality factor, on par with established top-down materials of similar dimensions, both resulting from the increased thickness. A two-level-system analysis of the temperature-dependent damping confirms this bulk-versus-surface picture and provides first insight into its microscopic origin. Our results identify dissipation dilution as the governing mechanism for high-Q mechanical vdW resonators. Combined with strategies such as soft clamping or stress engineering, they establish atomically thin resonators as a platform for ultrahigh-Q quantum transduction and sensing.
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BibTeX
@misc{schleicher2026role,
title = {{Role of dissipation dilution in achieving high mechanical quality factors in van der Waals resonators}},
author = {Lukas Schleicher and Leonard Geilen and Alexander Musta and Niklas Walter and Anne Rodriguez and Philipp Bredol and Alexander W. Holleitner and Eva M. Weig},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.18288},
eprint = {2610.18288},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.18288},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Role of dissipation dilution in achieving high mechanical quality factors in van der Waals resonators
AU - Lukas Schleicher
AU - Leonard Geilen
AU - Alexander Musta
AU - Niklas Walter
AU - Anne Rodriguez
AU - Philipp Bredol
AU - Alexander W. Holleitner
AU - Eva M. Weig
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.18288
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.18288
AB - Dissipation dilution has driven a revolution in the quality factors (Q) of top-down nanomechanical resonators. Yet it has not been leveraged for van der Waals (vdW) materials. Here we report quality factors up to 372,000±37,000 in monolayer MoS_2 drums at 4 K, nearly an order of magnitude beyond the previous best for any vdW material at this temperature, enabled by a clean, polymer-free exfoliation technique. We develop a dissipation-dilution model for circular drums and analyze the contributing intrinsic and extrinsic dissipation mechanisms. The MoS_2 monolayer exhibits a dilution factor of order $1,000$, establishing sub-nanometer-thin resonators as ultimate dilution materials. The intrinsic quality factor, however, is limited by surface losses at atomic thickness. Conversely, multilayer drums show a lower dilution factor but a high intrinsic quality factor, on par with established top-down materials of similar dimensions, both resulting from the increased thickness. A two-level-system analysis of the temperature-dependent damping confirms this bulk-versus-surface picture and provides first insight into its microscopic origin. Our results identify dissipation dilution as the governing mechanism for high-Q mechanical vdW resonators. Combined with strategies such as soft clamping or stress engineering, they establish atomically thin resonators as a platform for ultrahigh-Q quantum transduction and sensing.
ER -