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Title: Apparatus comprising a tunable nanomechanical near-field grating and method for controlling far-field emission

Patent ·
OSTI ID:902828

A tunable nanomechanical near-field grating is disclosed which is capable of varying the intensity of a diffraction mode of an optical output signal. The tunable nanomechanical near-field grating includes two sub-gratings each having line-elements with width and thickness less than the operating wavelength of light with which the grating interacts. Lateral apertures in the two sub-gratings are formed from the space between one line-element of the first sub-grating and at least one line-element of the second sub-grating. One of the sub-gratings is capable of motion such that at least one of aperture width and aperture depth changes, causing a perturbation to the near-field intensity distribution of the tunable nanomechanical near-field grating and a corresponding change to the far-field emission of thereof.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
Assignee:
Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
Patent Number(s):
7,173,764
Application Number:
10/829,782
OSTI ID:
902828
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (3)

Laterally deformable nanomechanical zeroth-order gratings: anomalous diffraction studied by rigorous coupled-wave analysis journal January 2003
Thick polysilicon surface-micromachined optically sensed accelerometer conference March 1999
Measurement of a laterally deformable optical MEMS grating transducer conference January 2004