Micromachining and testing of electrostatic actuators for optical tuning

Theme:

MEMs and NEMs

Funding:

EP/E043631/1

Atom chips are microfabricated surfaces capable of splitting, guiding and manipulating atoms by application of electric and magnetic fields. Although some basic functionalities were demonstrated earlier, integration of these functions still remains a challenge from microfabrication stand point. The integrated atom chips with stacked layers were prone for misalignment during fabrication. We have therefore micrabricated electrostatic actuators to compensate the misalignments in the stacked layers. The electrostatic actuator structures consists of flexures and trusses to move the optical mirrors in the wafer plane in order to compensate the misalignements if any, besides facilitating to tune the optical cavity for characterising the atoms.

Primary investigators

• ps2
• mk1

Partner

• Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London

Associated research groups

• Nano Research Group
• Southampton Nanofabrication Centre