Fabrication of nanomechanical structures from bulk-gaas using angled ion etching

We demonstrate a novel fabrication technique for making nanomechanical structures from bulk materials with no sacrificial layer. Angled ion etching is used to suspend single- and double-clamped beams from GaAs initially. Both beams are fabricated successfully by dry anisotropic ion etching. Resonance characteristics of the fabricated beams are also investigated from 300 to 15 K. A quality factor Q of 5700 is obtained at 40 K, showing a high mechanical reliability. This technique does not rely on conventional sacrificial etching and will enable us to fabricate electro-mechanical structures from a large number of bulk materials in the micro/nano electro mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) field.