Mechanical resonators are widely used in sensors, transducers and optomechanical systems, where mechanical dissipation sets the ultimate limit to performance. Over the past 15 years, the quality factors in strained mechanical resonators have increased by four orders of magnitude, surpassing the previous state of the art achieved in bulk crystalline resonators at room temperature and liquid helium temperatures. In this Review, we describe how these advances were made by leveraging ‘dissipation dilution’—where dissipation is reduced through a combination of static tensile strain and geometric nonlinearity in dynamic strain. We then review the state of the art in strained nanomechanical resonators and discuss the potential for even higher quality factors in crystalline materials. Finally, we detail current and future applications of dissipation-diluted mechanical resonators.

机械谐振器广泛用于传感器、换能器和光机械系统，其中机械耗散对性能设置了最终限制。在过去的 15 年里，应变机械谐振器的品质因数增加了四个数量级，超过了在室温和液氦温度下体晶谐振器所实现的现有技术水平。在这篇综述中，我们描述了如何通过利用“耗散稀释”来取得这些进步，即通过静态拉伸应变和动态应变中的几何非线性相结合来减少耗散。然后，我们回顾了应变纳米机械谐振器的最新技术，并讨论了晶体材料中更高品质因数的潜力。最后，我们详细介绍了耗散稀释机械谐振器当前和未来的应用。