<title>Mechanical characterization of magnetostrictively actuated microresonators</title>

A magnetostrictively actuated silicon-based micro-resonator has been fabricated in a simple process, including thin film deposition of the active material by sputtering. The aimed application is a 2D-Optical-Scanner, for which horizontal and vertical light deflections can be achieved by bending and torsional vibrations of a magneto-elastic bimorph structure. Static and dynamic magnetostriction phenomena are described according to a simple model. Mechanical characterization of three different actuators was performed by using a laser Doppler vibrometer. The vibration amplitude behavior are presented for two different orientations of the applied magnetic field, revealing two important capabilities of the actuator: there is no need of steady state biasing and the ratio of bending/torsion vibration amplitudes is tunable. Measurement of the frequency characteristics around resonance led to the evidence of different nonlinear behaviors for the two resonant modes under considerations. Moreover, some unwanted phenomena, which are induced by the fabrication process, have also been revealed.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.