Mass Spectrometry of Heavy Analytes and Large Biological Aggregates by Monitoring Changes in the Quality Factor of Nanomechanical Resonators in Air

Nanomechanical resonators are routinely used for identification of various analytes such as biological and chemical molecules, viruses, or bacteria cells from the frequency response. This identification based on the multimode frequency shift measurement is limited to the analyte of mass that is much lighter than the resonator mass. Hence, the analyte can be modeled as a point particle and, as such, its stiffness and nontrivial binding effects...