  We report the design and characterization of an optical shutter based on a
piezoelectric cantilever. Compared to conventional electro-magnetic shutters,
the device is intrinsically low power and acoustically quiet. The cantilever
position is controlled by a high-voltage op-amp circuit for easy tuning of the
range of travel, and mechanical slew rate, which enables a factor of 30
reduction in mechanical noise compared to a rapidly switched device. We achieve
shuttering rise and fall times of 11 $\mu$s, corresponding to mechanical slew
rates of 1.3 $\textrm{ ms}^{-1}$, with an timing jitter of less than 1 $\mu$s.
When used to create optical pulses, we achieve minimum pulse durations of 250
$\mu$s. The reliability of the shutter was investigated by operating
continuously for one week at 10 Hz switching rate. After this period, neither
the shutter delay or actuation speed had changed by a notable amount. We also
show that the high-voltage electronics can be easily configured as a versatile
low-noise, high-bandwidth piezo driver, well-suited to applications in laser
frequency control.
