Laser intensity effects in carrier-envelope phase-tagged time of flight-photoemission electron microscopy

Abstract

A time of flight-photoemission electron microscope is combined with a single-shot stereographic above-threshold ionization phase meter for studying attosecond control of electrons in tailored plasmonic nanostructures spatially and energetically via a carrier-envelope phase tagging technique. First carrier-envelope phase-resolved measurements of gold nanoparticles on gold plane and surface roughness from a gold film show an apparent carrier-envelope phase modulation with a period of π. This modulation is found to originate from an intensity dependence of the photoelectron spectra and the carrier-envelope phase measurement rather than from an intrinsic carrier-envelope phase dependence, which is confirmed by simulations. This useful finding suggests that intensity tagging should be considered for phase tagging experiments on plasmonic nanostructures with low carrier-envelope phase sensitivity in order to correct for the intensity-related carrier-envelope phase artifact.