Optical Control of Nanomechanical Eigenfrequencies and Brownian Motion in Metamaterials

Abstract: Nanomechanical photonic metamaterials provide a wealth of active switching, nonlinear and enhanced light-matter interaction functionalities by coupling optically and mechanically resonant subsystems. Thermal (Brownian) motion of the nanostructural components of such metamaterials leads to fluctuations in optical properties, which may manifest as noise, but which also present opportunity to characterize performance and thereby optimize design at the level of individual nanomechanical elements. We show that Brownian motion in an all-dielectric metamaterial ensemble of silicon-on-silicon-nitride nanowires can be controlled by light at sub-{\mu}W/{\mu}m2 intensities. Induced changes in nanowire temperature of just a few Kelvin, dependent upon nanowire dimensions, material composition, and the direction of light propagation, yield proportional changes of several percent in the few-MHz Eigenfrequencies and picometric displacement amplitudes of Brownian motion. The tuning mechanism can provide active control of frequency response in photonic metadevices and may serve as a basis for bolometric, mass and micro/nanostructural stress sensing.