Use of Radiation Pressure to Calibrate Sub Micro-Newton Forces and Damping Ratios

We present a noncontact method to calibrate micro/nanostructures using sub-nN forces. In this work, a microcantilever’s material properties as well as damping ratio are determined using two independent laser systems. A continuous wave laser system is used as a heterodyne interferometer to determine displacements while another laser system is pulsed in order to produce radiation pressure. A noncontact method is preferred while calibrating sub-μN forces since no material is transferred between the calibrating apparatus and (NEMS/MEMS) to be calibrated. The incidence force is calculated from the optical properties of Si cantilever. Simulations presented in this work shows that thermal gradient along the length of the cantilever beam is very small to affect its physical properties due to the difference in time scales on which both operate.