1/f frequency noise in mechanical resonators scales inversely with volume, not with quality factor

M. L. Roukes

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arXiv · 2609.16668

1/f frequency noise in mechanical resonators scales inversely with volume, not with quality factor

M. L. Roukes

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Abstract

Mechanical frequency-shift sensors have never reached their fundamental thermomechanical or quantum limits. Every material, size, and transduction scheme yet examined yields a $1/f$ floor 1-3 orders higher, with a flicker-noise coefficient $h_{-1} \propto 1/V_{\varepsilon}$. Surveying the published record, I find the invariant $h_{-1}\,V_{\varepsilon} \equiv σ_A ^2\, V_{\varepsilon}/(2\ln 2)$ independent of device size across 13 decades; volume-independent noise is excluded by 9$σ$, site-averaging by 3.8$σ$. No $Q$ dependence appears: reported $Q^{-n}$ laws scale equivalently when $Q$ and volume co-vary; only volume scaling survives when they do not. Mass resolution follows as $|δm| \propto \sqrt{h_{-1}\,V_{\varepsilon} \cdot V}$.

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M. L. Roukes. 2026-09-15. 1/f frequency noise in mechanical resonators scales inversely with volume, not with quality factor. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16668

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