Mechanical Frequency and Amplitude Modulation of a Quantum Cascade Laser Integrated with a Plasmonic Nanoantenna

Antenna-integrated quantum cascade lasers are extremely attractive as a compact method to couple the vibrational resonances in the mid-infrared to nanometer-sized biomolecules in an integrated form. The high sensitivity of such devices to extreme sub-diffraction objects is demonstrated with a volume that is five orders of magnitude smaller than the cubic wavelength (λ3). This suggests a new method to sense objects with extreme sub-diffraction dimensions.