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Plasmonic metamaterial absorber for broadband manipulation of mechanical resonances

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 709–714 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metamaterials1,2,3,4,5 are artificial materials that exhibit unusual properties for electromagnetic and sound waves. The quanta, namely photons and phonons, of these waves interact resonantly with these exotic man-made materials enabling many applications1. For instance, resonant light absorption6,7,8 in photonic metamaterials can efficiently convert optical energy into heat based on the photothermal9 effect. Here, we present a plasmonic metamaterial that simultaneously supports thermomechanically coupled optical and mechanical resonances for controlling mechanical damping with light10. In this metamaterial absorber6 with voltage-tunable Fano resonances, we experimentally achieve optically pumped coherent mechanical oscillations10 based on a plasmomechanical11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 parametric gain mechanism over an ∼4 THz bandwidth. Through the reverse effect, optical damping of mechanical resonance is also achieved. Our results provide a metamaterial-based approach for optical manipulation of the dynamics of mechanical oscillators.

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Figure 1: Metamaterial design.
Figure 2: Optical Fano resonances.
Figure 3: Mechanical resonances and plasmomechanical coupling.
Figure 4: Coherent mechanical oscillation.
Figure 5: Plasmomechanical damping.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) division under ECCS-1632797 (M. Fallahi). Part of this work was carried out in the Penn Quattrone nanofabrication facilities and the Nanoscale Characterization Facility (NCF), a member of the NSF-funded Materials Research Facilities Network. The authors thank A.Y. Zhu for discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, USA

    Hai Zhu & Fei Yi

  2. Department of NanoEngineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0448, California, USA

    Ertugrul Cubukcu

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0407, California, USA

    Ertugrul Cubukcu

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  1. Hai Zhu
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Contributions

E.C. conceived the idea and experiment design. H.Z and F.Y. built the measurement system. H.Z. performed the device design, fabrication and measurements. F.Y. provided technical support for the measurement. H.Z. and E.C. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ertugrul Cubukcu.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Zhu, H., Yi, F. & Cubukcu, E. Plasmonic metamaterial absorber for broadband manipulation of mechanical resonances. Nature Photon 10, 709–714 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.183

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