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Interference between light waves is one of the widely known phenomena inphysics, which is widely used in modern optics, ranging from precise detectionat the nanoscale to gravitational-wave observation. Akin to light, bothclassical and quantum interferences between surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs)have been demonstrated. However, to actively control the SPP interferencewithin subcycle in time (usually less than several femtoseconds in the visiblerange) is still missing, which hinders the ultimate manipulation of SPPinterference on ultrafast time scale. In this paper, the interference betweenSPPs launched by a hole dimer, which was excited by a grazing incident freeelectron beam without direct contact, was manipulated through both propagationand initial phase difference control. Particularly, using cathodoluminescencespectroscopy, the appearance of higher-order interference orders was obtainedthrough propagation phase control by increasing separation distances of thedimer. Meanwhile, the peak-valley-peak evolution at a certain wavelengththrough changing the accelerating voltages was observed, which originates fromthe initial phase difference control of hole launched SPPs. In particular, thetime resolution of this kind of control is shown to be in the ultrafastattosecond (as) region. Our work suggests that fast electron beams can be anefficient tool to control polarition interference in subcycle temporal scale,which can be potentially used in ultrafast optical processing or sensing.

Active plasmon interference control on ultrafast time scales by free electrons