Integrated Photonic Optomechanical Atomic Force Microscopy Probes Batch Fabricated Using Deep UV Photolithography

Abstract

Chip-scale planar nanofabricated optomechanical devices that optically couple a mechanical moving nanostructure to an on-chip photonic cavity of high quality factor can be used for sensing motion with high precision and bandwidth. Motion in nanoscale mechanical structures can be measured optically on-chip with unprecedented precision and bandwidth. Wider scientific and commercial adoption of such sensors required the ability to mass fabricate, flexibility of design, and permanent fiber attachment for robustness and ease of use. In this paper, we demonstrated this by fabricating an atomic force microscopy probe using a commercial foundry process employing deep UV photolithography on 200 mm wafers. The batch fabricated devices with 150 nm minimum features perform similarly to the research prototypes previously fabricated using sequential electron beam lithography. This demonstration eliminates a key technical barrier to the wider adoption of high-performance integrated optomechanical sensing in nanomechanical transducers.