Modeling tunable acoustic transport in driven graphene nanoresonator arrays

Arrays of graphene nanoelectromechanical resonators show promise as a platform for precise, programmable manipulation of acoustic waves at the nanoscale. Besides harboring technologically relevant resonant frequencies and high quality factor, graphene resonators display a remarkable tunability of the local membrane tension through electrostatic back-gating or laser heating, which can be used to modulate vibrational properties. Motivated by experiments, we present a theoretical and computational study of the acoustic properties of coupled graphene resonators with dynamical spatiotemporal modulation of the tension. Starting from the theory of thin elastic plates, we develop a reduced description of the collective modes arising from the coupling of the fundamental modes on individual resonators and evaluate the effects of externally driven changes in tension on wave propagation. We will also describe early efforts at calibrating and testing the model against experimental measurements of coupled resonator acoustic modes. Our results pave the way towards designing driven graphene nanoelectromechanical resonator arrays with a manifestly out-of-equilibrium acoustic response.