Dynamically reconfigurable plasmon resonances enabled by capillary oscillations of liquid-metal nanodroplets

Abstract

Plasmonics allows manipulating light at the nanoscale, but has limitations due to the static nature of nanostructures and lack of reconfigurability. We propose and theoretically analyze a room-temperature liquid-metal nanodroplet that changes its shape, and therefore dynamically reconfigures the plasmon resonance spectrum, due to capillary oscillations. We show the possibility to control the capillary oscillation frequency of the nanodroplet and to drive the oscillations electrically or mechanically. Employed as a dynamically reconfigurable nanoantenna, the nanodroplet may find applications in sensors, imaging, microscopy, and medicine.