Light Phase Detection with On-Chip Petahertz Electronic Networks

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a scalable, on-chip method for detecting the carrier-envelope phase of ultrafast optical pulses using an array of plasmonic nanoantennas, advancing PHz electronics and integrated attosecond science.

Contribution

It introduces a monolithic array of plasmonic nanoantennas for enhanced, scalable CEP detection, enabling compact on-chip ultrafast measurement capabilities.

Findings

Enhanced CEP detection in a nanoantenna array.

Scalable technique requiring less pulse energy.

Potential for integrated PHz electronic circuits.

Abstract

Ultrafast light-matter interactions lead to optical-field-driven photocurrents with an attosecond-level temporal response. These photocurrents can be used to detect the carrier-envelope-phase (CEP) of short optical pulses, and could be utilized to create optical-frequency, petahertz (PHz) electronics for information processing. Despite recent reports on optical-field-driven photocurrents in various nanoscale solid-state materials, little has been done in examining the large-scale integration of these devices. In this work, we demonstrate enhanced, on-chip CEP detection via optical-field-driven photocurrent in a monolithic array of electrically-connected plasmonic bow-tie nanoantennas that are contained within an area of hundreds of square microns. The technique is scalable and could potentially be used for shot-to-shot CEP tagging applications requiring orders of magnitude less pulse energy compared to alternative ionization-based techniques. Our results open new avenues for compact time-domain, on-chip CEP detection, and inform the development of integrated circuits for PHz electronics as well as integrated platforms for attosecond and strong-field science.