Intrinsic dissipation in cantilevers

We consider the effects of a velocity-independent friction force on cantilever damping. It is shown that this dissipation mechanism causes nonlinear effects in the cantilever vibrations. The size of the nonlinearity increases with decreasing cantilever velocity. Our analysis makes it possible to understand experiments [Stipe et al, PRL 87, 096801 (2001)] where an amplitude dependence of the cantilever eigenfrequency and anomalous dissipation was observed only at small amplitudes.