Elimination of stress-induced curvature in thin-film structures

Argon ion machining of released thin-film devices is shown to alter the contour shape of free-standing thin-film structures by affecting their through-thickness stress distributions. In experiments conducted on MEMS thin-film mirrors it is demonstrated that post-release out-of-plane deformation of such structures can be reduced using this ion beam machining method. In doing so optically flat surfaces (curvature