Abstract
Attosecond science relies on the use of intense, waveform-controlled, few-cycle laser pulses1 to control extreme nonlinear optical processes taking place within a fraction of an optical period. A number of techniques are available for retrieving the amplitude envelope and chirp of such few-cycle laser pulses. However, their full characterization requires detection of the absolute offset between the rapidly oscillating carrier wave and the pulse envelope, the carrier–envelope phase (CEP). So far, this has only been feasible with photoelectron spectroscopy, relying on complex vacuum set-ups2,3,4. Here, we present a technique that enables the detection of the CEP of few-cycle laser pulses under ambient conditions. This is based on the CEP-dependence of directly measurable electric currents generated by the electric field of light in a metal–dielectric–metal nanojunction. The device holds promise for routine measurement and monitoring of the CEP in attosecond laboratories.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Y. Deng for technical support and fruitful discussions as well as the Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics for financial support. A.S. acknowledges the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation. N.K. acknowledges the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Ö.S. acknowledges a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship (project NANOULOP, no. 302157). R.K. acknowledges an ERC starting grant.
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T.P.-C., A.S., R.K., R.E. and F.K. conceived and supervised the experiments. A.S., T.P.-C., D.G., O.R., S.M., J.R. and J.V.B. participated in sample design and fabrication. T.P.-C., A.S., N.K., A.A., Sa.K. and Ö.S. performed the measurements. St.K., V.A., M.I.S. and V.S.Y. provided the theoretical description and numerical modelling of the solid-state device for phase detection. T.P.-C. and N.K. performed numerical simulations and analysis of the stereo-ATI measurements. T.W. provided the stereo-ATI phasemeter. T.P.-C., A.S., N.K., St.K., M.K., T.W., V.S.Y., R.K., R.E. and F.K. analysed and interpreted the experimental data. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.
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Paasch-Colberg, T., Schiffrin, A., Karpowicz, N. et al. Solid-state light-phase detector. Nature Photon 8, 214–218 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.348
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.348
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