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Micro-grippers are highly desired in engineering, robotics, and biomedicine. However, on the basis of satisfying the requirements of miniaturization, precise manipulation, and low power consumption, the existing micro-grippers are difficult to achieve rapid response simultaneously. In this paper, we present a bimorph electrothermal micro-gripper that composed of several metal ultrathin films with high surface-to-volume ratios, allowing rapid heating and cooling processes. Patterns of these films are exquisitely designed so that the micro-gripper naturally forms an embedded circuit to optimize the current distribution. The micro-gripper can be precisely actuated under voltages below 2 V, while dramatically responding to pulse voltages up to 100 Hz. By interacting with a silica particle 96 times heavier than its weight, potential applications of the micro-gripper in robotics, organic tissue engineering, and interventional surgery can be shown. The advantage to be compatible with other semiconductor components ensures that the functions of the micro-gripper can be further expanded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second-harmonic generation of 1.064 μm incident light was measured on BaTiO[sub 3] thin films, both a-axis and c-axis oriented, undoped and doped with cerium, prepared by pulsed laser deposition. The dependence of second-harmonic generation (SHG) coefficients of these films on the incidence angle and the polarization direction of the fundamental beam were investigated. The effective SHG coefficients was enhanced greatly when the films were doped with cerium. © 1998 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]