Christiaan Bekker won the Micrograph Award 2018 and tells us about his research and the trip to the Workshop on OptoMechanics and Brillouin scattering: towards Applications and Technology in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Over the last couple of years, I have had the privilege of being able to work with a RAITH eLINE Electron Beam Lithography system which has recently been installed at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. The eLINE was instrumental in allowing the development of double-disk optomechanical systems with integrated, sub-micrometer-width interdigitated electrodes deposited precisely on the device surface. The resolution of the EBL allowed me to create compliant devices which were engineered to release stress in the thin glass disks, and to align multiple layers with exquisite precision to create a widely tuneable optical microcavity which can be used in applications from routing and switching in reconfigurable photonic circuits to picking out sharp spectral features of astronomical filters or precision spectrometers.
I was delighted to be awarded the RAITH micrograph award for 2018 for my images of these devices captured on the eLINE system, and with their support I was able to present my work at the Workshop on OptoMechanics and Brillouin scattering: towards Applications and Technology (WOMBAT) 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. This was my first European conference, and an amazing opportunity in my fourth year of PhD to not only grow in my depth of knowledge in my broader field, but to also learn more about Brillouin scattering and see my work from the eyes of that community. The conference expanded my horizons, and also offered a great opportunity to network and give exposure to what I have been doing.
On top of this three-day conference, I was glad for the opportunity to visit Jerusalem and the north of Israel. RAITH was incredibly helpful in allowing my return flight to be delayed an additional week, which not only allowed me to visit two world-leading labs in the Netherlands, but to also able to attend the Conference on Quantum Information and Measurement V in Rome. Though this conference was funded by my university, the entire trip would not have been possible without the support from RAITH.
I am not only truly thankful for this opportunity, but have also benefited greatly professionally, both in terms of interest shown in this work throughout the trip, and nearing the end of my PhD (and the start of a hopefully fruitful career in research).