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Carrier-envelope phase effects on the strong-field photoemission of electrons from metallic nanostructures

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 37–42 (2014)Cite this article

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An Erratum to this article was published on 19 November 2013

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Abstract

Sharp metallic nanotapers irradiated with few-cycle laser pulses are emerging as a source of highly confined coherent electron wave packets with attosecond duration and strong directivity1,2,3,4,5,6. The possibility to steer, control or switch such electron wave packets with light7 is expected to pave the way towards direct visualization of nanoplasmonic field dynamics8,9,10 and real-time probing of electron motion11,12 in solid-state nanostructures13,14. Such pulses can be generated by strong-field-induced tunnelling and acceleration of electrons in the near-field of sharp gold tapers within one half-cycle of the driving laser field1,2,5. Here, we show the effect of the carrier-envelope phase of the laser field on the generation and motion of strong-field-emitted electrons from such tips. We observe clear variations in the width of plateau-like photoelectron spectra characteristic of the subcycle regime. This is a step towards controlling the coherent electron motion in and around metallic nanostructures over ultrashort lengths and timescales.

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Figure 1: Electron generation from sharp metal tips with few-cycle CEP-stabilized pulses.
Figure 2: Transition from multiphoton to strong-field photoemission from sharp gold tips.
Figure 3: Experimental observation of CEP effects in strong-field electron emission from sharp metal tips.
Figure 4: Numerical simulation of the CEP effect on strong-field photoemission.

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  • 19 November 2013

    In the version of this Letter originally published online, one beam was missing in the interferometer section depicted in the schematic shown in Fig. 1a. This error has now been corrected in both the HTML and PDF versions of this Letter.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SPP1391), the European Union (‘CRONOS’) and the Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of Science and Technology (Global Research Laboratory project, K20815000003) is acknowledged. D.J.P. thanks Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg for a personal fellowship. The research leading to these results has received funding from LASERLAB-EUROPE (grant agreement no. 284464, EC's Seventh Framework Programme).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Physik, Carl von Ossietzky Universität, Oldenburg, 26129, Germany

    Björn Piglosiewicz, Slawa Schmidt, Doo Jae Park, Jan Vogelsang, Petra Groß & Christoph Lienau

  2. Center of Interface Science, Carl von Ossietzky Universität, Oldenburg, 26129, Germany

    Björn Piglosiewicz, Slawa Schmidt, Doo Jae Park, Jan Vogelsang, Petra Groß & Christoph Lienau

  3. Dipartimento di Fisica, IFN-CNR, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, 20133, Italy

    Cristian Manzoni, Paolo Farinello & Giulio Cerullo

Authors
  1. Björn Piglosiewicz
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  8. Giulio Cerullo
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  9. Christoph Lienau
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Contributions

C.L. initiated the project. C.M., P.F. and G.C. designed and implemented the laser system. B.P., S.S., J.V. and D.J.P. implemented the set-up and carried out the experiments. C.L., D.J.P., J.V. and P.G. developed the simulation model. D.J.P., P.G. and C.L. prepared the manuscript. All authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Christoph Lienau.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Piglosiewicz, B., Schmidt, S., Park, D. et al. Carrier-envelope phase effects on the strong-field photoemission of electrons from metallic nanostructures. Nature Photon 8, 37–42 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.288

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