Work

On-chip read-out of picomechanical motion under ambient conditions

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: Monitoring the nanomechanical movement of suspended cantilever structures has found use in applications ranging from biological/chemical sensing to atomic force microscopy. Interrogating these sensors relies on the ability to accurately determine the sub-nanometre movements of the cantilever. Here we investigate a technique based on the combination of integrated silicon photonics and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to create an optically resonant microcavity and demonstrate its use for monitoring of the position of cantilevers on the picometer scale under ambient conditions with dynamic range extending over several microns. The technique is interferometric, and we show it to be sufficiently sensitive to measure both the first and second modes of cantilever Brownian motion. We anticipate that application of this technique will provide a physically robust, picometer precision, integrated cantilever movement read-out technology which can take cantilever sensors from laboratory controlled environments into real world conditions, allowing everyday applications.

Source: Nanoscale

DOI: 10.1039/c4nr05419a

Authors: Gino Putrino, Mariusz Martyniuk, Adrian Keating, Lorenzo Faraone, John Dell

Institution: The University of Western Australia

Language: English

Topic: Advanced MEMS and NEMS Technologies

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Australian National Fabrication Facility, Australian Research Council, Australia-India Strategic Research Fund

Awards: New multiplexed optical read-out technologies for micromachined cantilever sensor arrays, G7761070484