An electromechanical membrane resonator

An electrically active membrane-based mechanical resonator was fabricated from a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. The mechanical motion of the membrane was piezoelectrically excited and detected. The piezoelectric transducer could also excite a range of resonance modes in the membrane that were identified and mapped via optical interferometry. Furthermore, the various mode shapes combined with the piezoelectric transduction could be used to execute mechanical-logic-gates. The development of an electrically active membrane-based mechanical resonator paves the way towards responsive electromechanical detectors and highly functional opto-electro-mechanical systems.