Michigan State University - Research Groups

Very large reversible curvature changes with large recoverable stress were demonstrated for VO₂-coated silicon microcantilevers over the small temperature range of the film’s IMT. These results suggest that thermally activated actuators of this type and with micron or submicron lengths can offer controllable motions with nanometer resolution and capable of applying large forces. While these capabilities can be obtained from piezoelectric microdevices, thermally activated ones would be much simpler to fabricate and operate. An interesting aspect which remains to be probed is the switching speeds for mechanical actuation by direct thermal or optical excitation. These can be expected to be high in comparison with SMAs, considering the hardness and stiffness of the material