The precise characterization of the ultrafast optical response of metals and metallic nanostructures has remained an experimental challenge. We probe the few-femtosecond electronic dephasing of a local surface plasmon polariton excitation using symmetry-selective second-harmonic (SH) Rayleigh scattering of a nanoscopic conical gold tip as an individual plasmonic nanostructure. The full reconstruction of the optical response function of the plasmon excitation with phase and amplitude without any model assumptions is demonstrated from the analysis of the two-dimensional spectrogram obtained by simultaneous time- and frequency-domain SH measurements, using interferometric frequency resolved optical gating. The measured dephasing time of T(2) = 18 +/- 5 fs indicates the plasmon damping is dominated by nonradiative decay, consistent with a Drude-Sommerfeld dielectric response for gold. Even for the nominally homogeneous localized plasmon response, deviations are observed from the ideal harmonic oscillator phase behavior, which may reflect the underlying inhomogeneous electronic response with its different scattering channels. The presented technique is generally applicable for the reconstruction of the plasmon dynamics of complex nanostructures: information that cannot be obtained by conventional dark-field scattering.

Engineering the optical magnetic field with optical antennas or metamaterials extends the ways to control light-matter interaction. The slot antenna, as the electromagnetic dual of the linear rod antenna, provides the simplest form of a magnetic resonator tunable through its length. Using combined far-and near-field spectroscopy and imaging, and theory, we identify magnetic dipole and higher order bright and dark magnetic resonances at mid-infrared frequencies. From resonant length scaling and spatial near-field distribution, we confirm the applicability of Babinetʼs principle over the mid-infrared spectral region. Babinet's principle thus provides access to spatial and spectral magnetic field properties, leading to the targeted design of magnetic optical antennas.

No abstract

We present a measurement of the electron-capture branch of 100 Tc. Our value, B(EC) = (2.6 ± 0.4) × 10 −5 , implies that the 100 Mo neutrino absorption cross section to the ground state of 100 Tc is roughly one third larger than previously thought. Compared to previous measurements, our value of B(EC) prevents a smaller disagreement with QRPA calculations relevant to double-β decay matrix elements.

No abstract