Optomechanical beam steering by surface plasmon nanoantenna

Controlling the far field pattern of the electromagnetic (EM) waves has many applications including wireless communications, radar detection, and industrial applications. The dynamic control of EM patterns is called beam steering. Despite advantages in each technique, the speed, angular range, and spectral range of beam steering is limited due to mechanical and optical properties of such systems. Here we present a beam steering method by means of an array of optomechanical nanoantennas in which the generated optical force of each antenna results in changes to the antenna response due to mechanical reconfiguration. As a result, the antenna far field phase is changed due to the mechanical movement generated by the optical force. Depending on the mechanical properties of the movable component of the antenna, the phase of the antenna can be tailored for a given optical source power. FDTD simulations are used to calculate the optical response of antenna. A phase array of optomechanical nanoantennas is used to do beam steering. The main far field lobe is steered by 0.5 degrees as a result of the mechanical reconfiguration of the phased array.