Fully Integrated Mach-Zhender MEMS Interferometer With Two Complementary Outputs

Author

Omran, Haitham ; Medhat, Mostafa ; Mortada, Bassem ; Saadany, Bassam ; Khalil, Diaa

Author_Institution

Fac. of Eng., Ain Shams Univ., Cairo, Egypt

Volume

48

Issue

2

fYear

2012

Firstpage

244

Lastpage

251

Abstract

In this paper, a novel Mach-Zhender interferometer for spectroscopy applications is presented. The interferometer is fully integrated on an silicon on insulator wafer using deep reactive ion etching technology, the moving mirror is coupled to a comb drive microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) actuator. Optical propagation inside the MEMS structure is modeled and the diffraction effect is studied. Practical results show the complementary nature of the two outputs and a resolution of 25 nm at 1.55 μm is reported when using the interferometer as an Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. The complementary nature of the interferometer can be further used for source noise reduction.

Keywords

Fourier transform spectrometers; Mach-Zehnder interferometers; infrared spectrometers; integrated optics; light diffraction; light propagation; micro-optomechanical devices; microactuators; mirrors; silicon-on-insulator; sputter etching; Fourier transform infrared spectrometer; complementary outputs; deep reactive ion etching; diffraction effect; drive microelectromechanical system actuator; integrated Mach-Zehnder MEMS interferometer; moving mirror; optical propagation; silicon on insulator wafer; source noise reduction; wavelength 1.55 mum; Actuators; Laser beams; Micromechanical devices; Mirrors; Optical device fabrication; Optical interferometry; Silicon; Deep reactive ion etching; Fourier transform infrared spectrometer; Gaussian beams; Mach-Zhender interferometer; microelectromechanical systems;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2011.2170825

Filename

6036141