  Recently, there have been dramatic advances in the miniaturization of
electromechanical devices. Most of the micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems
(MEMS-NEMS) operate in the resonant modes1. The micron-, and, the more, the
submicron-sizes devices, are driven usually by electrostatic forces, as
piezoelectric and electromagnetic engines are powerless over this size range.
Such engines could play the role of external actuators for the NEMS, being,
however, macro devices in their own. Apart from actuation, an objective of NEMS
is getting the output signal characterizing the oscillations1, so, actuators
sensing their own motion are rather topical (see 2 for example). Not long ago,
several works appeared demonstrating high sensitivity of the sizes3,4 and form5
of quasi one-dimensional conductors to the deformations of the charge-density
wave (CDW). Here we demonstrate electrically driven torsional resonators based
on whiskers of the quasi one-dimensional conductor with CDW, TaS3. The driving
force for the torsional deformation is peculiar to the CDW systems and reflects
the transmission of the CDW deformation to the crystalline lattice. In
comparison with the piezoelectrics, the effect of electric field on the crystal
deformation is 3-4 orders of magnitude larger. The resonator is found to
provide also a torsion-induced electrical feed-back (output signal) from the
oscillations. We discuss the CDW systems as promising elements for NEMS-MEMS.
