Electrically tunable plasmomechanical oscillators for localized modulation, transduction, and amplification.

Abstract

Plasmomechanical systems are an emerging class of device that hold great promise for manipulating light-matter interactions with high speed and sub-diffraction spatial resolution. However, realizing their potential requires developing active plasmomechanical systems that can localize their functionality to the level of an individual sub-wavelength plasmonic resonator. Here, we present an active, electrically tunable plasmomechanical system that uses a localized-gap plasmonic resonator to mediate optical, thermal, and mechanical interactions within a subwavelength footprint. Our device enables facile electromechanical modulation of localized plasmons, selective sub-diffraction transduction of nanomechanical motion, and functions as a plasmomechanical oscillator that can be injection locked to and thus amplify weak external stimuli. These functionalities benefit applications in nanomechanical sensing, spatial light modulators, and reconfigurable metasurfaces.