The influence of pressure on the optical properties of artificial microcavities in silicon

Abstract

The effects of external pressure on artificial microcavities prepared by thermal bonding in silicon have been investigated using interferometer techniques. The cavities were bounded on one side by a membrane. When a varying external pressure bends the membrane a corresponding variation in the light flux leaving the interferometer due to interference can be measured. A Fabry-Perot analysis can be applied locally to describe the interference phenomena. Numerical calculations based on the finite element method were performed to simulate the membrane bending and the light flux from the structure at different pressures.