On-chip sampling of optical fields with attosecond resolution
Mina R. Bionta, Felix Ritzkowsky, Marco Turchetti, Yujia Yang, Cattozzo Mor, Dario, William P. Putnam, Franz X. Kärtner, Karl K. Berggren, Phillip D. Keathley
Abstract
We demonstrate an on-chip, optoelectronic device capable of sampling arbitrary, low-energy, near-infrared waveforms under ambient conditions with sub-optical-cycle resolution. Our detector uses field-driven photoemission from resonant nanoantennas to create attosecond electron bursts that probe the electric field of weak optical waveforms. Using these devices, we sampled the electric fields of ~5 fJ (6.4 MV /m), few-cycle, near-infrared waveforms using ~50 pJ (0.64 GV/m) near-infrared driving pulses. Beyond sampling these weak optical waveforms, our measurements directly reveal the localized plasmonic dynamics of the emitting nanoantennas in situ. Applications include broadband time-domain spectroscopy of molecular fingerprints from the visible region through the infrared, time-domain analysis of nonlinear phenomena and detailed investigations of strong-field light–matter interactions.