A method to fabricate GaAs microcavities using only a soft mask with an electrolithographic pattern in an inductively coupled plasma etching is presented. A careful characterization of the fabrication process pinpointing the main routes for a smooth device sidewall is discussed. Using the final recipe, optomechanical microdisk resonators are fabricated. The results show very high optical quality factors of Qopt > 2 × 105, among the largest already reported for dry-etching devices. The final devices are also shown to present high mechanical quality factors and an optomechanical vacuum coupling constant of g0 = 2π × 13.6 kHz enabling self-sustainable mechanical oscillations for an optical input power above 1 mW.
It was great to host Prof. Michäel Menard for the past few months at Unicamp through his sabbatical leave! Can’t believe three months have already gone and its time for him to go back . The picture shows that we can’t only leave of science!
