Multi-photon 3D imaging with an electrothermal actuator with low thermal and inertial mass

Abstract Design and testing of a low-mass electrothermal vertical scanning mirror for fast axial scanning during multi-photon microscopy is presented. The mirror makes use of a novel honeycomb mechanical support structure to substantially reduce both thermal and inertial mass relative to mirror size. At the same time, undesirable mirror curvature due to residual thermal stress is controlled without adversely affecting the image quality. In addition, the support structure makes the complete mirror area usable which otherwise is not possible in devices that rely on isotropic silicon etching. A high actuator efficiency with static displacement per unit power of 2.08  μ m/mW was achieved due to the reduced thermal capacitance at the actuator legs, when using a 700 nm thin structural layer of SiO2. The resulting scanning mirror achieves open loop time constant as small as 3.42 ms with both thermal and mechanical bandwidths exceeding 100 Hz. Mirror surface non-idealities related to the mirror structure and their influence on image quality are discussed. Sample 3D multi-photon images captured by performing remote scanning in both lateral and axial direction on a benchtop testbed are presented. The efficacy of remote axial scan is ascertained by comparisons with images obtained by moving specimens relative to the objective.