Elastomer-Based Diffractive Optical Modulator

Abstract—In this paper, device structure and measurements on a diffractive optical modulator fabricated using a elastomer layer are reported. The device structure is fairly simple with an inter-digitated bottom electrode, an elastomer layer, and a top electrode. Application of voltage to one of the bottom interdigitated electrodes causes an electrostrictive force, which, in turn, corrugates the elas-tomer layer. This method is used to create a configurable reflective phase grating that enables an analog control of the diffracted in-tensity. The major advantages of this method are the ease of fabri-cation and the simple device structure. Index Terms—Diffraction, grating, microelectromechanical de-vices, optical device fabrication, optical equalizers. I