Laser-induced electron emission from Au nanowires: A probe for orthogonal polarizations

TL;DR

This study investigates laser-induced electron emission from gold nanoribbons, revealing their potential for detecting orthogonal laser polarization components with high spatial sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces gold nanoribbons as novel electron emitters that are sensitive to multiple laser field components, unlike traditional sharp tips.

Findings

Emission depends on one transverse component for sharp tips.

Nanoribbons are sensitive to both laser field components.

Potential application in position-sensitive laser polarization detection.

Abstract

Photoelectron field emission, induced by femtosecond laser pulses focused on metallic nanotips, provides spatially coherent and temporally short electron pulses. The properties of the photoelectron yield give insight into both the material properties of the nanostructure and the exciting laser focus. Ultralong nanoribbons, grown as a single crystal attached to a metallic taper, are sources of electron field emission that have not yet been characterized. In this report, photoemission from gold nanoribbon samples is studied and compared to emission from tungsten and gold tips. We observe that the emission from sharp tips generally depends on one transverse component of the exciting laser field, while the emission of a blunted nanoribbon is found to be sensitive to both components. We propose that this property makes photoemission from nanoribbons a candidate for position-sensitive detection of the longitudinal field component in a tightly focused beam.