Few-cycle Surface Plasmon Polariton Generation by Rotating Wavefront Pulses

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using wavefront rotation and grating coupling to generate ultra-short surface plasmon polaritons, achieving few-cycle durations with high peak fields, demonstrated through realistic simulations.

Contribution

It presents a new technique combining wavefront rotation with grating coupling for efficient, few-cycle SPP generation, validated by simulations with realistic parameters.

Findings

Achieved 3.8 fs SPPs from 29.5 fs laser pulses.

Peak SPP field amplitude is 2.7 times the laser pulse.

Method is feasible and robust under optimal conditions.

Abstract

A concept for the efficient generation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) with a duration of very few cycles is presented. The scheme is based on grating coupling and laser pulses with wavefront rotation (WFR), so that the resonance condition for SPP excitation is satisfied only for a time window shorter than the driving pulse. The feasibility and robustness of the technique is investigated by means of simulations with realistic parameters. In optimal conditions, we find that a $29.5$~fs pulse with $800$~nm wavelength can excite a $3.8$~fs SPP ($\sim 1.4$ laser cycles) with a peak field amplitude $2.7$ times the peak value for the laser pulse.