Graphene-nanodiamond membranes for atomic-impact sensing: design and fluorescence readout limits
- 1Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen Allegaten 55 Bergen 5007 Norway
Abstract
Hybrid nanomaterial platforms that combine mechanically compliant two-dimensional membranes with optically active quantum emitters offer an attractive route towards ultrasensitive particle detection. Here, we investigate a sensor concept based on a graphene membrane suspended over a nanoscale aperture and functionalised with fluorescent nanodiamonds. The impact of an incoming atom transfers momentum to the membrane and excites an out-of-plane mechanical motion, which is transduced into an optical signal through the nanodiamond fluorescence. We develop a quantitative upper-bound model linking atomic momentum transfer, the mechanical response of the nanodiamond-loaded membrane, and the resulting optical transduction. Design maps for the mechanical resonance frequency and collision-induced oscillation amplitude reveal single-impact displacements in the femtometre-to-sub-picometre range for helium atoms. Even under favourable mechanical, collision, and optical conditions, the corresponding relative fluorescence modulation remains below 10−6 throughout the investigated parameter space and reaches only a few 10−7 under the most favourable conditions. Combined with photon-counting statistics, these results show that direct fluorescence-intensity detection of individual atomic impacts is impractical in the considered configuration. Importantly, the analysis identifies optical displacement transduction, rather than the absence of a mechanical response, as the principal limitation. The predicted absolute displacements approach the scale accessible to state-of-the-art graphene optomechanical measurements, making interferometric or cavity-based displacement readout a more promising direction, although single-impact detectability remains dependent on bandwidth and noise. Our results establish quantitative feasibility bounds for graphene-nanodiamond atomic-impact sensors and identify the readout mechanism as the central design parameter for future hybrid nano-mechanical sensing architectures.
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BibTeX
@article{fiedler2026graphenenanodiamond,
title = {{Graphene-nanodiamond membranes for atomic-impact sensing: design and fluorescence readout limits}},
author = {Johannes Fiedler and Sabrina D. Eder and Justas Zalieckas},
journal = {Nanoscale Advances},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1039/d6na00363j},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1039/d6na00363j},
note = {CC BY 3.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Graphene-nanodiamond membranes for atomic-impact sensing: design and fluorescence readout limits
AU - Johannes Fiedler
AU - Sabrina D. Eder
AU - Justas Zalieckas
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
JO - Nanoscale Advances
DO - 10.1039/d6na00363j
UR - https://doi.org/10.1039/d6na00363j
AB - Hybrid nanomaterial platforms that combine mechanically compliant two-dimensional membranes with optically active quantum emitters offer an attractive route towards ultrasensitive particle detection. Here, we investigate a sensor concept based on a graphene membrane suspended over a nanoscale aperture and functionalised with fluorescent nanodiamonds. The impact of an incoming atom transfers momentum to the membrane and excites an out-of-plane mechanical motion, which is transduced into an optical signal through the nanodiamond fluorescence. We develop a quantitative upper-bound model linking atomic momentum transfer, the mechanical response of the nanodiamond-loaded membrane, and the resulting optical transduction. Design maps for the mechanical resonance frequency and collision-induced oscillation amplitude reveal single-impact displacements in the femtometre-to-sub-picometre range for helium atoms. Even under favourable mechanical, collision, and optical conditions, the corresponding relative fluorescence modulation remains below 10−6 throughout the investigated parameter space and reaches only a few 10−7 under the most favourable conditions. Combined with photon-counting statistics, these results show that direct fluorescence-intensity detection of individual atomic impacts is impractical in the considered configuration. Importantly, the analysis identifies optical displacement transduction, rather than the absence of a mechanical response, as the principal limitation. The predicted absolute displacements approach the scale accessible to state-of-the-art graphene optomechanical measurements, making interferometric or cavity-based displacement readout a more promising direction, although single-impact detectability remains dependent on bandwidth and noise. Our results establish quantitative feasibility bounds for graphene-nanodiamond atomic-impact sensors and identify the readout mechanism as the central design parameter for future hybrid nano-mechanical sensing architectures.
SN - 2516-0230
ER -