We report on the demonstration of a high finesse micro-optomechanical system and identify potential applications ranging from optical cooling to weak force detection to massive quantum superpositions. The system consists of a high quality diameter flat dielectric mirror cut from a larger substrate with a focused ion beam and attached to an atomic force microscope cantilever. Cavity ring-down me...

The fabrication and characterization of SiGeC cantilever microcoolers are described. Silicon on insulator (SOI) was used as the substrate, and two layers of 3 μm p-SiGe0.07C0.0075 and 1.14 μm n-SiGe0.07C0.0075 lattice matched to silicon were grown using molecular beam epitaxy. The uni couple cooler was fabricated using conventional integrated circuit (IC) processing, and the cantilever structur...

A self-compensating fiber optic flow sensor system based on the principle of broadband white-light interferometers and cantilever beam bending is described. The fiber optic sensor system uses two fiber ferrule sensors that are bonded on either side of a cantilever beam to measure the flow rate by monitoring the air-gap changes caused by the bending of the cantilever beam. Cross sensitivity of t...

This paper explores the structure, composition, and mechanical properties of porcupine fish spines for the first time. The spine was found to be composed of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite, protein (collagen), and water using X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Microstructures have mineralized fibrillar sheets in the longitudinal direction and...

The free vibration analysis of rotating functionally graded (FG) nano-beams under an in-plane thermal loading is provided for the first time in this paper. The formulation used is based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory through Hamilton’s principle and the small scale effect has been formulated using the Eringen elasticity theory. Then, they are solved by a generalized differential quadrature meth...

Title of dissertation: ADVANTAGEOUS UTILIZATION OF NONLINEAR PHENOMENA IN MICRO-STRUCTURES AND MACRO-STRUCTURES Andrew James Dick, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Professor Balakumar Balachandran and Professor C. Daniel Mote, Jr. Department of Mechanical Engineering Within this work, the nonlinear oscillations of various beam-like structures are studied. Methods are develop...

A voltage regulator is developed to extend the operation range of a electrostatic actuator using a displacement feedback. The feedback actuator system can be used for continuous position tracking of step, ramp, or harmonic voltage signals. The electrostatic actuator is composed of a micro-cantilever beam electrode above a fixed electrode. The voltage difference between the two electrodes is reg...

The atomic force microscope (AFM) has become an essential tool for the measurement of surface characteristics of diverse materials on a microand nanoscale level [1]. The resolution of measurements for the AFM cantilever is related to its vibration sensitivity. Many researchers have much interest in studying the resonant frequency and sensitivity analysis of AFM cantilevers [2 4]. Cracks may be ...

The development of strong, tough, and damage-tolerant ceramics requires nano/microstructure design to utilize toughening mechanisms operating at different length scales. The toughening mechanisms so far known are effective in micro-scale, then, they require the crack extension of more than a few micrometers to increase the fracture resistance. Here, we developed a micro-mechanical test method u...

This study investigated the feasibility of the micro powder blasting technique for the micro fabrication of sensor structures using the Pyrex glass to replace the existing silicon-based acceleration sensor fabrication processes. As the preliminary experiments, the effects of the blasting pressure, the mass flow rate of abrasive and the number of nozzle scanning times on erosion depth of the Pyr...