Mainz 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 45: Plasmonics and Metasurfaces

Q 45.6: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 5. März 2026, 12:30–12:45, P 3

Nanoscale free-electron dynamics in plasmonic nanostructures — •Fabian Scheidler, Jessica Meier, and Bert Hecht — Experimental Physics 5, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany

Intense laser pulses give rise to strong-field phenomena, where the external electromagnetic field exceeds the binding field of electrons in matter [1]. At sharp metallic nanotips, this leads to a nonlinear photocurrent driven by multiphoton and strong-field photoemission [2].

Plasmonic nanoantennas fabricated by focused helium ion beam milling from monocrystalline gold microplatelets provide large field enhancements stemming from both an asymmetric nanotip-shaped gap and plasmonic hotspots [3]. Such structures have been shown to yield a geometry-dependent photocurrent across small gaps when driven by a femtosecond Ti:Sa laser in the visible to infrared spectral regime.

Our goal is to employ nanoantenna systems as local electron sources with designed plasmonic near fields for electron control. To describe the free-electron dynamics, we develop a semiclassical simulation scheme to analyze free-electron motion as well as the resulting nonlinear photocurrent.
(1) Dombi, P. et al. Rev. Mod. Phys. 2020, 92, 025003.

(2) Krüger, M. et al. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 2018, 51, 172001.

(3) Meier, J. et al. Advanced Optical Materials 2023, 11, 2300731.

Keywords: plasmonics; photocurrent; photoemission; free-electron dynamics