Toward Full Spatio-Temporal Control on the Nanoscale

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for achieving complete spatio-temporal control of nanometer-scale fields by manipulating surface plasmon polaritons at a nanowedge edge, enabling ultrashort, coherently controlled pulses.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to fully control the spatio-temporal properties of nanoscopic fields using surface plasmon polariton modulation at a nanowedge edge.

Findings

Achieves adiabatic concentration of SPP wavepackets at a nanofocus.

Demonstrates complete coherent control of the pulse profile.

Enables generation of ultrashort, localized optical pulses.

Abstract

We introduce an approach to implement full coherent control on nanometer length scales. It is based on spatio-temporal modulation of the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) fields at the thick edge of a nanowedge. The SPP wavepackets propagating toward the sharp edge of this nanowedge are compressed and adiabatically concentrated at a nanofocus, forming an ultrashort pulse of local fields. The one-dimensional spatial profile and temporal waveform of this pulse are completely coherently controlled.