Acousto-optic coupling in phoxonic crystal nanobeam cavities with plasmonic behavior.

Acousto-optic (AO) coupling in a two-layer GaAs/Ag heterogeneous phoxonic crystal nanobeam cavity with plasmonic behavior is studied numerically. Because of the Ag metal layer, the cavity structure hybridizes photons and surface plasmons, squeezing the optical energy into small regions near the GaAs/Ag interface; the phononic cavity modes can be simultaneously tailored to highly match the photonic cavity modes at reduced regions in the cavity. Consequently, AO coupling is enhanced at near-infrared wavelengths.