Near-field plasmonics for generation of phonon lasing in a thermal nanomachine

TL;DR

This paper proposes a thermal nanomachine utilizing near-field plasmonic metamaterials to generate phonon lasing and control phononic and photonic population inversion at the nanoscale.

Contribution

It introduces a nanoscale phononic laser driven by a plasmonic near-field transducer within a thermal nanomachine, enabling controlled phonon and photon population inversion.

Findings

Successful generation of phonons on demand.

Full control over the phonon lasing medium.

Potential to achieve population inversion in photonic transitions.

Abstract

Recent advances in near-field plasmonic metamaterials, such as nanoresonators or transducers, have demonstrated the ability to generate localized fields of high intensity, and thus maintain relatively large nanoscale heat gradients on the order of $10^1-10^2$~K/nm. A plasmonic near-field transducer (NFT) can achieve such large gradients, making population inversion achievable within phononic media. We herein develop a thermal nanomachine composed of a nanoscale phononic laser using InGaAs quantum dot media where an NFT serves as the plasmonic energy source. We show, on demand, the generation of phonons while having full control of the phonon lasing medium. We also demonstrate the ability to obtain population inversion of a photonic transition in the system if one chooses.