Optical nanometer-scale sensing of mechanical vibrations with a planar glass at critical angle

The authors have devised an optical multireflection system to detect nanometer-scale mechanical vibrations in a very simple and cost effective manner. The system is based on a planar glass, reflecting laser light internally a number of times in near critical angular conditions. Any small angular dis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2007-06, Vol.90 (24), p.244108-244108-3
Main Authors: Micheletto, Ruggero, Kawakami, Yoichi, Hamamoto, Katsumi
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The authors have devised an optical multireflection system to detect nanometer-scale mechanical vibrations in a very simple and cost effective manner. The system is based on a planar glass, reflecting laser light internally a number of times in near critical angular conditions. Any small angular displacement results in an abrupt change of reflectivity. Monitoring the light at the exit of the device results in extremely high sensitivity to small mechanical vibrations. Calibrated tiny vibrations of 2.4 nm were resolved corresponding to an angular shift of about 2 × 10 − 7 rad .
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.2747676