Micromachined three-dimensional tunable Fabry-Perot etalons

We report on novel three-dimensional tunable Fabry-Perot etalons fabricated by surface micromachining technique. The Fabry-Perot etalons are tuned by rotation or translation movements. For the Fabry-Perot etalon tuned by rotational movement, the Fabry-Perot etalon is integrated with a rotational stage and the effective light path distance is adjusted by rotating the stage. The transmission peak wavelength shift \2 of 32 nm has been observed for tuning angle AO equal to 70°. For the FabryPerot etalon tuned by linear translation, two mirrors constituting the etalon are integrated with translational stages. The stage consists of a slider constrained by flanges along the two edges so that only translational movement along the optical axis is allowed. By changing the distance between two mirrors for 2.25 jim, a transmission peak wavelength shift AX of 103 nm has been achieved. The threedimensional Fabry-Perot etalons can be easily extended to integrate with other micro-optical elements fabricated in a similar way. Furthermore, fiber-to-fiber coupling will be easy with this three-dimensional approach. The three-dimensional tunable Fabry-Perot etalon is another successful demonstration of the free-space micro-optical bench (FS-MOB) technology we have proposed previously.