Low speed piezoelectric optical microscanner actuated by piezoelectric microcantilevers using LaNiO₃ buffered Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ thin film

We have developed piezoelectric optical microscanners for low speed scanning actuated by piezoelectric microcantilevers using LaNiO₃ (LNO) buffered Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) thin films. The microscanners were fabricated from multilayers of Pt/LNO/PZT/LNO/Pt/Ti/ SiO₂ deposited on silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers through a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microfabrication process. The microcantilevers were also fabricated through the same microfabrication process. Using the microcantilevers, we investigated the actuation conditions for the microscanners. We found that the microscanners actuated under non-resonant AC actuation need DC bias application to realize the mirror rotation. Application of 10V of DC bias resulted in a linear increase in the mirror rotation angle with the amplitude of the AC actuation voltage. The mechanical half rotation angle of the mirror reached 5.3° under actuation by an AC voltage of 20V_pp-30Hz and a DC bias of 10V.