Fabrication and Characterization of High-Q Silicon Nitride Membrane Resonators.

Silicon nitride membranes are a widely used optomechanical resonator platform, offering high mechanical Q, low optical loss, and enhanced optomechanical coupling using a panoply of strain, phononic-crystal, and photonic-crystal engineering techniques. Despite their ubiquity, fabrication and characterization of silicon nitride membranes often rely on tacit knowledge shared between research groups. This article presents a detailed video walk-through of the design, fabrication, and characterization of a contemporary silicon nitride membrane resonator (specifically, a centimeter-scale Si3N4 nanoribbon supporting torsional modes with Q-factors exceeding 10 at room temperature).