MEMS-enabled mechanically-tunable 2D photonic crystal lens

Author

Cui, Y. ; Tamma, V.A. ; Park, W. ; Lee, J. -B

Author_Institution

Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

23-27 Jan. 2011

Firstpage

704

Lastpage

707

Abstract

We report design, fabrication and characterization of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) enabled mechanically tunable 2D photonic crystal lens. The photonic crystal lens was realized by embedding honeycomb lattice silicon nano rods array inside flexible 10 μm thick SU-8 membrane. A pair of chevron shape nickel actuators was used to symmetrically stretch the 2D photonic crystal lens. The induced uniaxial elongation in photonic crystal lens thus perturbs the photonic band structure, leading to modulation of the focal length. The tunable lens was characterized using infrared tunable laser and far field imaging infrared camera. The profiles of the scattered light spot at the deflection at various strains were digitized and carefully compared with 2D finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations. Both simulation and experiment results were in good agreement.

Keywords

integrated optics; lenses; light scattering; micro-optomechanical devices; microactuators; nanorods; nickel; optical design techniques; optical fabrication; optical testing; optical tuning; photonic crystals; silicon; 2D finite difference time domain simulation; MEMS; Ni; SU-8 membrane; Si; chevron shape actuators; far field imaging infrared camera; honeycomb lattice; infrared tunable laser; mechanically tunable 2D photonic crystal lens; microelectromechanical systems; nanorods array; optical characterization; optical design; optical fabrication; photonic band structure; scattered light; size 10 mum; uniaxial elongation; Actuators; Biomembranes; Finite difference methods; Lenses; Optical waveguides; Photonic crystals; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2011 IEEE 24th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Cancun

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9632-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2011.5734522

Filename

5734522