GRATING FORMATION IN ORIENTATIONAL OPTOMECHANICAL MEDIA AT MICROWAVE-FREQUENCIES

Orientational optomechanical media, consisting of three dimensional ar rays of elongated metal coated dielectric beams suspended by torsional springs, was fabricated using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) te chnology. Response of a single rotating element to a polarized electro magnetic radiation was found to be in a good agreement with theory. Sp atial grating formation in fabricated orientational optomechanical med ia was detected and measured under the influence of two orthogonally p olarized electromagnetic fields at 15 GHz. This process demonstrates t he feasibility of using optomechanical media for phase conjugation, vi a degenerate four-wave mixing, and for other nonlinear processes at mi crowave and millimeter wave frequencies. (C) 1997 American Institute o f Physics.