Control of energy dissipation in nanoparticle optical devices: nearly loss-free switching and modulation

When hybrid systems consisting of metallic nanoparticles and semiconductor quantum dots interact with coherent lights, they can act as nanoparticle "molecules" with their own characteristic collective states. In this paper, we study how one can control the nature (heat or light) and magnitude of the energy dissipation of such molecules. Using this, we explore nanodevices wherein we can require their initial states of operations consume less, more, or similar energies than those of their final states. In particular, we show one can adjust the structural parameters of a nanoparticle molecule such that as a switch or a modulator the amount of its energy consumption during its operating cycle remains unchanged. These results offer new avenues for device applications based on nanoparticle molecules with the promise of energy consumption independent of their operation (repetition) rates. In this study, the diameter of the metallic nanoparticles considered is 7 nm and the quantum dot sizes are about 3 nm.