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Interrogating Nanojunctions Using Ultraconfined Acoustoplasmonic Coupling

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Deacon, WM 
Lombardi, A 
Benz, F 
del Valle-Inclan Redondo, Y 

Abstract

Single nanoparticles are shown to develop a localized acoustic resonance, the bouncing mode, when placed on a substrate. If both substrate and nanoparticle are noble metals, plasmonic coupling of the nanoparticle to its image charges in the film induces tight light confinement in the nanogap. This yields ultrastrong “acoustoplasmonic” coupling with a figure of merit 7 orders of magnitude higher than conventional acousto-optic modulators. The plasmons thus act as a local vibrational probe of the contact geometry. A simple analytical mechanical model is found to describe the bouncing mode in terms of the nanoscale structure, allowing transient pump-probe spectroscopy to directly measure the contact area for individual nanoparticles.

Description

Keywords

0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural), 1007 Nanotechnology, Nanotechnology, Bioengineering

Journal Title

Physical Review Letters

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0031-9007
1079-7114

Volume Title

119

Publisher

American Physical Society
Sponsorship
European Research Council (320503)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L027151/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/G060649/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K028510/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/H007024/1)
This work is supported by UK EPSRC grants EP/G060649/1, EP/L027151/1 and ERC grant LINASS 320503, as well as the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability (FB, YdV-IR, JM), the Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarship from St John’s College (RC).
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