  Diamagnetic levitation is a promising technique for realizing resonant
sensors and energy harvesters, since it offers thermal and mechanical isolation
from the environment at zero power. To advance the application of
diamagnetically levitating resonators, it is important to characterize their
dynamics in the presence of both magnetic and gravitational fields. Here we
experimentally actuate and measure rigid body modes of a diamagnetically
levitating graphite plate. We numerically calculate the magnetic field and
determine the influence of magnetic force on the resonance frequencies of the
levitating plate. By analyzing damping mechanisms, we conclude that eddy
current damping dominates dissipation in mm-sized plates. We use finite element
simulations to model eddy current damping and find close agreement with
experimental results. We also study the size-dependent Q-factors (Qs) of
diamagnetically levitating plates and show that Qs above 100 million are
theoretically attainable by reducing the size of the diamagnetic resonator down
to microscale, making these systems of interest for next generation low-noise
resonant sensors and oscillators.

Applied Physics