We study the dynamics of transverse oscillations of a suspended carbon nanotube into which electron current is injected from the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). In this case
the correlations between the displacement of the nanotube and its charge state, determined by the
position-dependent electron tunneling rate, can lead to a “shuttle-like” instability for the transverse
vibrational modes. We find that selective excitation of a specific mode can be achieved by an
accurate positioning of the STM tip. This result suggests a feasible way to control the dynamics of
this nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) based on the “shuttle instability.”
Single-electron tunneling. [Microwave scanning tunneling microscope]