Plasmomechanical Resonators Based on Dimer Nanoantennas

Nanomechanical resonators are highly suitable as sensors of minute forces, displacements, or masses. We realize a single plasmonic dither antenna of subwavelength size, integrated with silicon nitride nanobeams. The sensitive dependence of the antenna response on the beam displacement creates a plasmo-mechanical 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.