Illumination-induced vibrational phenomena can significantly affect the mechanical behavior of micro-mechanical sensors (MEMS) and, consequently, the noise performance of detectors based on these sensors. In this paper, we study thermoelastic deflection induced by photothermal heating of a solid micro-mechanical cantilever illuminated by a short square laser pulse. An analytical-numerical technique based on the Laplace transform is employed to calculate the spectral function of lateral deflection. The results indicate that the profile of laser-induced vibrations depends on the temporal shape of the excitation optical pulse. The square pulse enhances the increasing trend of the high-frequency lateral vibration amplitude peak if cantilever thickness increases suggesting the possibility of size-dependent engineering of the properties of detectors utilizing micro-mechanical cantilevers.
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