Abstract THE DRIVEN AND STOCHASTIC DYNAMICS OF MICRO AND NANOSCALE CANTILEVERS IN VISCOUS FLUID AND NEAR A SOLID BOUNDARY BY

Micro and nanoscale systems are rapidly evolving to improve the resolution of experimental measurements. Experiments involving such small scale devices are difficult and expensive, and the available analytical theory to describe their dynamics is idealized. The dynamics of microscopic cantilevers in fluid are com-plicated and include significant contributions from many sources in an actual experiment. Some examples are: complex cantilever geometries, near-wall ef-fects, thermal and external actuation techniques, and a variety of measurement techniques. Numerical simulations are a powerful approach to describe the dy-namics of micro and nanoscale systems for the precise conditions of experiment. This thesis provides a numerical approach capable of addressing these inherent challenges and quantifies the dynamics of microscopic cantilevers in fluid for experimentally relevant conditions. A thermodynamic approach based upon the fluctuation-dissipation theorem allows for the calculation of stochastic dynamics from deterministic dynamics. Using numerical simulations, the thermal motion can be described for the precis