Abstract

The ability of two nearly-touching plasmonic nanoparticles to squeeze light into a nanometer gap has provided a myriad of fundamental insights into light–matter interaction. In this work, we construct a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) that capitalizes on the unique, singular behavior that arises at sub-nanometer particle-spacings to create an electro-optical modulator. Using in situ electron energy loss spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope, we map the spectral and spatial changes in the plasmonic modes as they hybridize and evolve from a weak to a strong coupling regime. In the strongly-coupled regime, we observe a very large mechanical tunability (~250 meV/nm) of the bonding-dipole plasmon resonance of the dimer at ~1 nm gap spacing, right before detrimental quantum effects set in. We leverage our findings to realize a prototype NEMS light-intensity modulator operating at ~10 MHz and with a power consumption of only 4 fJ/bit.

Squeezing light into a nanometer gap offers strong light–matter interaction. Here, the authors develop a nanoelectromechanical system to dynamically control the gap of a plasmonic dimer at nanometer scale, enabling the realization of a light-intensity modulator that operates at high speed and with a low power consumption.

Details

Title
Nanoelectromechanical modulation of a strongly-coupled plasmonic dimer
Author
Jung-Hwan, Song 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Raza Søren 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; van de Groep Jorik 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ju-Hyung, Kang 1 ; Li Qitong 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kik, Pieter G 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Brongersma Mark L 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Stanford University, Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford, USA (GRID:grid.168010.e) (ISNI:0000000419368956) 
 Technical University of Denmark, Department of Physics, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark (GRID:grid.5170.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 2181 8870) 
 Stanford University, Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford, USA (GRID:grid.168010.e) (ISNI:0000000419368956); University of Amsterdam, Van der Waals–Zeeman Institute for Experimental Physics, Institute of Physics, Amsterdam, Netherlands (GRID:grid.7177.6) (ISNI:0000000084992262) 
 University of Central Florida, CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, Orlando, USA (GRID:grid.170430.1) (ISNI:0000 0001 2159 2859) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2474984741
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.