Ultrafast, Strong‐Field Plasmonic Phenomena

Generation of attosecond electron packets via conical surface plasmon electron acceleration

“…Typical ultrafast electron based techniques include ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) 1 2 , and ultrafast transmission electron microscopy (UTEM) 2 3 . There exists a variety of methods for generating the necessary ultrafast electron packets, including photoemission from a photocathode illuminated by an ultrafast laser pulse 1 2 3 , photoemission from nanotips 4 5 6 , and photoemission followed by subsequent ponderomotive acceleration in intense surface plasmon (SP) fields 7 8 9 10 . Recently, there has been increased interest in SP based platforms as they have enabled the generation of high energy femtosecond electron packets 8 , and can employ a multitude of geometries including prisms 7 8 9 10 11 , nanotips 12 , nanoantennas 13 14 , and gratings 15 .…”