Optomechanical model of surface micromachined tunable optoelectronic devices

Linewidth is a critical performance parameter for many optoelectronic devices. We have developed a combined optical and mechanical simulation tool and demonstrate its application to micromachined vertical-cavity tunable optoelectronic devices. The deformation of the mirror surface is calculated from the area moment method. The optical field distribution is calculated by the Fox-Li method, and the diffraction losses are estimated from second-order perturbation theory. By comparison to experimental results, we find that the deformation of the central plate is well predicted by our theory. While deformation can be a major source of linewidth broadening in MEMS tunable optoelectronic devices, it is not the primary source in our devices.