Electrical tuning of mechanical characteristics in qPlus sensor: Active Q and resonance frequency control

We present an electrical feedback method for independent and simultaneous tuning of both the resonance frequency and the quality factor of a harmonic oscillator, the so called “qPlus” configuration of quartz tuning forks. We incorporate a feedback circuit with two electronic gain parameters into the original actuation-detection system, and systematically demonstrate the control of the original resonance frequency of 32 592 Hz from 32 572 Hz to 32 610 Hz and the original quality factor 952 from 408 up to 20 000. This tunable module can be used for enhancing and optimizing the oscillator performance in compliance with specifics of applications.