Coherent sub-THz phonons incident on a gold grating that is deposited on a dielectric substrate undergo diffraction and thereby induce an alteration of the surface plasmon-polariton resonance. This results in efficient high-frequency modulation (up to 110 GHz) of the structure's reflectivity for visible light in the vicinity of the plasmon-polariton resonance. High modulation efficiency is achieved by designing a periodic nanostructure which provides both plasmon-polariton and phonon resonances. Our theoretical analysis shows that the dynamical alteration of the plasmon-polariton resonance is governed by modulation of the slit widths within the grating at the frequencies of higher-order phonon resonances.

• Received 29 May 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.121401