On-chip optical nano-scale displacement sensor

Peng Wang; Aron Michael; Chee Yee Kwok

doi:10.1117/12.2033715

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7 December 2013 On-chip optical nano-scale displacement sensor

Peng Wang, Aron Michael, Chee Yee Kwok

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Proceedings Volume 8923, Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems; 89233Z (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2033715
Event: SPIE Micro+Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications, 2013, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

In this paper, a high-speed on-chip optical displacement sensing and self-actuating mechanisms have been designed and simulated for an AFM application. This mechanism can allow significantly smaller cantilever beams to be made with higher sensitivity and wide bandwidth for parallel imaging through array of cantilevers. This arrangement consists of a Si-waveguide in which a nano-scale free space gap is fabricated in the direction of light propagation.One portion of the Si-waveguide is a suspended cantilever with a thin film PZT formed on it for actuation. The optical power coupling loss between the waveguides is used to measure the cantilever displacement. The simulation results show that the device can achieve a 6.25MHz resonant frequency in air, 0.195N/m spring constant and less than 0.1nm sensitivity. This approach can overcome the conventional cantilever size limit of an AFM to achieve high bandwidth with low spring constant.

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Peng Wang, Aron Michael, and Chee Yee Kwok "On-chip optical nano-scale displacement sensor", Proc. SPIE 8923, Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems, 89233Z (7 December 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2033715

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