Abstract
A modulating corner-cube reflector with one microelectromechanical-system (MEMS) mirror that deforms from a flat into a hexagonal array of concave reflective microlenses to disperse the retroreflected wavefront is demonstrated. It is shown that such retromodulators can operate under a wide range of wavelength and angle illumination using Huygens-Fresnel propagation analysis, and this analysis is verified using devices fabricated by surface micromachining. A gold-coated silicon-nitride membrane suspended over 1-mm-diameter circular cavities had a resonant frequency of 160 kHz and 0.55-µm maximum deformation with 79 V applied. While this deflection was only 2/3 of the design value of 0.8 µm, we measured an up to 7:1 modulation contrast ratio from a prototype retromodulator, which achieved 100-kHz modulation over a 100-nm optical bandwidth, a 35 ° range of incident angles, and temperatures ranging from 20 to 100 °C.
© 2006 IEEE
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