Solitary waves in electro-mechanical lattices

Abstract

We introduce and study both analytically and numerically a class of microelectromechanical chains aiming to turn them into transmission lines of solitons. Mathematically, their analysis reduces to the study of a spatially one-dimensional nonlinear Klein–Gordon equation with a model dependent onsite nonlinearity induced by the electrical forces. Since the basic solitons appear to be unstable for most of the force regimes, we introduce a stabilizing algorithm and demonstrate that it enables a stable and persisting propagation of solitons. Among other fascinating nonlinear formations induced by the presented models, we mention the “meson”: a stable square shaped pulse with sharp fronts that expands with a sonic speed, and “flatons”: flat-top solitons of arbitrary width.