Elastomer based electrically tunable, optical microcavities

Irma Slowik; Nils Michael Kronenberg; Markus Franke; Axel Fischer; Andreas Richter; Malte Christian Gather; Karl Leo

doi:10.1063/1.4966549

Elastomer based electrically tunable, optical microcavities

Irma Slowik, Nils Michael Kronenberg, Markus Franke, Axel Fischer, Andreas Richter, Malte Christian Gather, Karl Leo

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Tunable optical elements are mostly realized by microelectromechanical systems, which require expensive and complex lithography during processing. We demonstrate an alternative device based on an electrically tunable
microcavity employing a dielectric soft elastomer actuator. The cavity resonance is varied by changing the physical cavity thickness due to electrostriction of the soft elastomer. We realize a tunable metal-elastomerDBR
multi-half wavelength microcavity with a cavity layer thickness around 12 µm and quality factors up to 700. Applying a voltage up to 60 V between bottom ITO and top metal electrode tunes the wavelength of the cavity modes up to ∆λ = 14 nm, which relates to a cavity thickness change of about 200 nm. This
concept allows the implementation of tunable optical elements like tunable filters or resonators with low cost and simple processing.

Original language	English
Article number	171104
Number of pages	5
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	109
Issue number	17
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4966549
Publication status	Published - 26 Oct 2016

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© 2016, the Author(s). This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at scitation.aip.org / http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4966549
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title = "Elastomer based electrically tunable, optical microcavities",

abstract = "Tunable optical elements are mostly realized by microelectromechanical systems, which require expensive and complex lithography during processing. We demonstrate an alternative device based on an electrically tunable microcavity employing a dielectric soft elastomer actuator. The cavity resonance is varied by changing the physical cavity thickness due to electrostriction of the soft elastomer. We realize a tunable metal-elastomerDBR multi-half wavelength microcavity with a cavity layer thickness around 12 µm and quality factors up to 700. Applying a voltage up to 60 V between bottom ITO and top metal electrode tunes the wavelength of the cavity modes up to ∆λ = 14 nm, which relates to a cavity thickness change of about 200 nm. This concept allows the implementation of tunable optical elements like tunable filters or resonators with low cost and simple processing. ",

author = "Irma Slowik and Kronenberg, \{Nils Michael\} and Markus Franke and Axel Fischer and Andreas Richter and Gather, \{Malte Christian\} and Karl Leo",

note = "This work is supported in part by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Cluster of Excellence Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) and by the European Social Fund via the OrganoMechanics project. M.C.G. and N.M.K acknowledge support by the Scottish Funding Council (via SUPA) and the Human Frontier Science Program (RG0074/2013). ",

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doi = "10.1063/1.4966549",

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AU - Slowik, Irma

AU - Kronenberg, Nils Michael

AU - Franke, Markus

AU - Fischer, Axel

AU - Richter, Andreas

AU - Gather, Malte Christian

AU - Leo, Karl

N1 - This work is supported in part by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Cluster of Excellence Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) and by the European Social Fund via the OrganoMechanics project. M.C.G. and N.M.K acknowledge support by the Scottish Funding Council (via SUPA) and the Human Frontier Science Program (RG0074/2013).

PY - 2016/10/26

Y1 - 2016/10/26

N2 - Tunable optical elements are mostly realized by microelectromechanical systems, which require expensive and complex lithography during processing. We demonstrate an alternative device based on an electrically tunable microcavity employing a dielectric soft elastomer actuator. The cavity resonance is varied by changing the physical cavity thickness due to electrostriction of the soft elastomer. We realize a tunable metal-elastomerDBR multi-half wavelength microcavity with a cavity layer thickness around 12 µm and quality factors up to 700. Applying a voltage up to 60 V between bottom ITO and top metal electrode tunes the wavelength of the cavity modes up to ∆λ = 14 nm, which relates to a cavity thickness change of about 200 nm. This concept allows the implementation of tunable optical elements like tunable filters or resonators with low cost and simple processing.

AB - Tunable optical elements are mostly realized by microelectromechanical systems, which require expensive and complex lithography during processing. We demonstrate an alternative device based on an electrically tunable microcavity employing a dielectric soft elastomer actuator. The cavity resonance is varied by changing the physical cavity thickness due to electrostriction of the soft elastomer. We realize a tunable metal-elastomerDBR multi-half wavelength microcavity with a cavity layer thickness around 12 µm and quality factors up to 700. Applying a voltage up to 60 V between bottom ITO and top metal electrode tunes the wavelength of the cavity modes up to ∆λ = 14 nm, which relates to a cavity thickness change of about 200 nm. This concept allows the implementation of tunable optical elements like tunable filters or resonators with low cost and simple processing.

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VL - 109

JO - Applied Physics Letters

JF - Applied Physics Letters

IS - 17

M1 - 171104

ER -

Elastomer based electrically tunable, optical microcavities

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