Technology, characterization, and applications of adaptive mirrors fabricated with IC-compatible micromachining

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Abstract
Fabrication of electrostatically controlled membrane adaptive mirrors produced with IC- compatible micromachining is reported. Mirrors have rectangular reflective apertures with sizes varied from 1 by 1 mm up to 11 by 11 mm. The surface of the flexible mirror is formed by a free-suspended 0.5 micrometer-thick silicon nitride film coated with a thin reflective layer of aluminum. The rms deviation from plane for a mirror having one square centimeter aperture is 0.2 micrometer, mirrors with optical quality up to lambda/20 may be selected from batch. Up to sixteen mirrors can be fabricated on one four-inch silicon wafer. Optical figure of the reflective membrane is controlled by an array of 1...100 electrostatic actuators of arbitrary shape placed 20...100 micrometer beneath the reflecting membrane. Technology of fabrication is flexible enough to allow for fabrication of varifocal mirrors, multichannel adaptive mirrors, and spatial light modulators. These and some other applications are discussed in the report.

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