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We demonstrate plasmon-mechanical coupling in a metalized nanomechanical oscillator. A coupled surface plasmon is excited in the 25 nm wide gap between two metalized silicon nitride beams. The strong plasmonic dispersion allows the nanomechanical beams' thermal motion at a frequency of 4.4 MHz to be efficiently transduced to the optical transmission, with a measured displacement spectral density of 1.11 × 10(-13) m/Hz(1/2). When exciting the second-order plasmonic mode at λ = 780 nm we observe optical-power-induced frequency shifts of the mechanical oscillator. Our results show that novel functionality of plasmonic nanostructures can be achieved through coupling to engineered nanoscale mechanical oscillators.
Nanomechanical resonators are highly suitable as sensors of minute forces, displacements, or masses. We realize a single plasmonic dimer antenna of subwavelength size, integrated with silicon nitride nanobeams. The sensitive dependence of the antenna response on the beam displacement creates a plasmomechanical system of deeply subwavelength size in all dimensions. We use it to demonstrate transduction of thermal vibrations to scattered light fields and discuss the noise properties and achievable coupling strengths in these systems.
We
demonstrate parallel transduction of thermally driven mechanical
motion of an array of gold-coated silicon nitride nanomechanical beams,
by using near-field confinement in plasmonic metal–insulator–metal
resonators supported in the gap between the gold layers. The free-space
optical readout, enabled by the plasmonic resonances, allows for addressing
multiple mechanical resonators in a single measurement. Light absorbed
in the metal layer of the beams modifies their mechanical properties,
allowing photothermal tuning of the eigenfrequencies. The appearance
of photothermally driven parametric amplification indicates the possibility
of plasmonic mechanical actuation.
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