All-Oxide Crystalline Microelectromechanical systems

We report the fabrication and modeling of a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) entirely made of crystalline oxides. A suspended SrTiO(3) (001) microcantilever is employed as flexible substrate for the deposition of epitaxial transition-metal oxide (TMO) thin films. Tensile strain is generated at the upper surface of the SrTiO(3) cantilever during its bending. Strain is thus transmitted to an overgrown TMO film by epitaxial lock with the SrTiO(3) element. A strain-generator device for epitaxial TMO films is thus demonstrated and modeled by finite element methods. Evaluation of the applied strain and its distribution along microcantilevers of rectangular and triangular geometries is given.