Attosecond nanoplasmonic streaking of localized fields near metal nanospheres

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how attosecond nanoplasmonic streaking spectroscopy can be used to measure and reconstruct the ultrafast electron dynamics and near-field oscillations around isolated gold nanospheres, providing detailed insights into plasmonic behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical approach to apply attosecond streaking spectroscopy for studying localized plasmonic fields and electron dynamics in nanospheres, revealing size and position-dependent effects.

Findings

Near-fields around nanoparticles can be spatio-temporally reconstructed.

Different regimes of nanoplasmonic streaking are identified.

Insights into the build-up and decay of collective electron motion are obtained.

Abstract

Collective electron dynamics in plasmonic nanosystems can unfold on timescales in the attosec- ond regime and the direct measurements of plasmonic near-field oscillations is highly desirable. We report on numerical studies on the application of attosecond nanoplasmonic streaking spectroscopy to the measurement of collective electron dynamics in isolated Au nanospheres. The plasmonic field oscillations are induced by a few-cycle NIR driving field and are mapped by the energy of photoemitted electrons using a synchronized, time-delayed attosecond XUV pulse. By a detailed analysis of the amplitudes and phase shifts, we identify the different regimes of nanoplasmonic streaking and study the dependence on particle size, XUV photoelectron energy and emission position. The simulations indicate that the near-fields around the nanoparticles can be spatio-temporally reconstructed and may give detailed insight into the build-up and decay of collective electron motion.