A three-dimensional electrostatic actuator with a locking mechanism for a new generation of atom chips

A micromachined three-dimensional electrostatic actuator that is optimized for aligning and tuning optical microcavities on atom chips is presented. The design of the 3D actuator is outlined in detail, and its characteristics are verified by analytical calculations and finite element modelling. Furthermore, the fabrication process of the actuation device is described and preliminary fabrication results are shown. The actuation in the chip plane which is used for mirror positioning has a working envelope of 17.5 ?m. The design incorporates a unique locking mechanism which allows the out-of-plane actuation that is used for cavity tuning to be carried out once the in-plane actuation is completed. A maximum translation of 7 ?m can be achieved in the out-of-plane direction

Analytical model of micromachining of brittle materials with sharp particles

We present an analytical model for the powder blasting of brittle materials with sharp particles. We developed a continuum equation, which describes the surface evolution during the powder blasting, into which we introduced surface energetics as the major relaxation mechanism. The experimental and the calculated erosion rates match extremely well. Also, the developed model explains why the sidewalls of a power blasted channel are not straight, e.g. have a blast lag, for which we also found a good agreement between experiments and theory

Wavelet analysis of coarsening during unstable MBE growth

We present a wavelet analysis of coarsening of mounds during molecular beam epitaxy. The advantage in using wavelets over Fourier analysis is that one can track the coarsening process in both, location (direct space) and frequency (or scale) space at the same time. The wavelets concise scale decomposition allows the discrimination of the coarsening process i.e. tracking coarsening at different scales

Microfabrication of gold wires for atom guides

peer reviewe

Fabrication of micromirrors with pyramidal shape using anisotropic etching of silicon with KOH

peer reviewedWe report in this work the fabrication and optical characterization of micromirrors with inversed pyramidal shape (pits). The pyramids are etched on silicon using an anisotropic etchant and then gold coated to form a mirror

Integration of a two-dimensional electrostatic actuator in a new generation of atom chips

Summary: In this paper we present an integrated atom chip design which incorporates a micromachined electrostatic actuator for optical cavity alignment. The two-dimensional actuator is fabricated by applying deep reactive ion etching techniques (DRIE) on a silicon-on-glass wafer. An actuation of 17.5 µm is achievable which is sufficient to compensate for the misalignment of the optical cavity during the fabrication process