Nanoplasmonics deals with collective electronic dynamics on the surface of metal nanostructures, which arises as a result of excitations called surface plasmons. This field, which has recently undergone rapid growth, could benefit applications such as computing and information storage on the nanoscale, the ultrasensitive detection and spectroscopy of physical, chemical and biological nanosized objects, and the development of optoelectronic devices. Because of their broad spectral bandwidth, surface plasmons undergo ultrafast dynamics with timescales as short as a few hundred attoseconds. So far, the spatiotemporal dynamics of optical fields localized on the nanoscale has been hidden from direct access in the real space and time domain.

In collaboration with colleagues from MPQ, LMU and GSU Atlanta we have proposed and developed an attosecond nanoplasmonic-field microscope. This microscope will be implemented at the attosecond beamline AS-5 at MPQ, allowing for the spatiotemporal control of nanoplasmonic fields and their real-time probing on attosecond timescales. The principle of this microscope is based on the photoemission of electrons by an XUV attosecond pulse that is synchronized with a waveform-stabilized driving optical field. Information about the nanoplasmonic fields is imprinted in the energy of the XUV-emitted electrons, which are recorded with high spatial resolution.

People: Adrian Wirth, Simon Watson, Frederik Süssmann, Dr. Sergey Zherebtsov

Partners: C Chew, J Schmidt, Prof. U Kleineberg (LMU), Prof. M Stockman (GSU Atlanta), Dr. J Schuck & Dr. A Weber-Bargioni (Molecular Foundry, Berkeley), Prof. E Rühl (FU Berlin), Prof. F Krausz (MPQ)