Open AccessObservation of few-cycle, strong-field phenomena in surface plasmon fields
Author(s) -
Péter Dombi,
S. E. Irvine,
Péter Rácz,
Miklós Lenner,
N. Kroó,
G. L. Farkas,
A. V. Mitrofanov,
Andrius Baltuška,
Takao Fuji,
Ferenc Krausz,
A. Y. Elezzabi
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.18.024206
Subject(s) - plasmon , surface plasmon , surface plasmon polariton , laser , optics , electric field , physics , ultrashort pulse , electron , field (mathematics) , materials science , atomic physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics
We present experimental evidence of the generation of few-cycle propagating surface plasmon polariton wavepackets. These ultrashort plasmonic pulses comprised of only 2-3 field oscillations were characterized by an autocorrelation measurement based on electron photoemission. By exploiting plasmonic field enhancement, we achieved plasmon-induced tunnelling emission from the metal surface at low laser intensity, opening perspectives for strong-field experiments with low pulse energies. All-optical electron acceleration up to keV kinetic energy is also demonstrated in these surface-confined, few-cycle fields with only 1.35×10(12) W/cm2 focused laser intensity. The experimental results are found to be in excellent agreement with the model.