Detecting mid-infrared light by molecular frequency upconversion with dual-wavelength hybrid nanoantennas
Abstract
Coherent interconversion of signals between optical and mechanical domains is enabled by optomechanical interactions. Extreme light-matter coupling produced by confining light to nanoscale mode volumes can then access single mid-infrared (MIR) photon sensitivity. Here we utilise the infrared absorption and Raman activity of molecular vibrations in plasmonic nanocavities to demonstrate frequency upconversion. We convert {\lambda}~10 {\mu}m incoming light to visible via surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) in doubly-resonant antennas that enhance upconversion by >10^10. We show >200% amplification of the SERS antiStokes emission when a MIR pump is tuned to a molecular vibrational frequency, obtaining lowest detectable powers ~1 {\mu}W/{\mu}m^2 at room temperature. These results have potential for low-cost and large-scale infrared detectors and spectroscopic techniques, and bring single-molecule sensing into the infrared
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2107.02507,
title = {Detecting mid-infrared light by molecular frequency upconversion with dual-wavelength hybrid nanoantennas},
author = {Angelos Xomalis and Xuezhi Zheng and Rohit Chikkaraddy and Zsuzsanna Koczor-Benda and Ermanno Miele and Edina Rosta and Guy A E Vandenbosch and Alejandro Martínez and Jeremy J Baumberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.02507},
year = {2021}
}