Attosecond XUV pulses and surface plasmon polaritons: Two case studies

Abstract

Surface plasmons are collective oscillations of the surface electrons in resonance with an external driving field. In this chapter we investigate their combination with attosecond pulses in two distinct scenarios. First, a high harmonic source using the enhanced field of a surface plasmon is analyzed and characterized in detail. As typical for such sources, one finds high repetition rates and good coherence properties, however, at low photon yields. Conversely, an experimental technique for the spatial and temporal imaging of plasmonic excitations on nanostructured surfaces is presented. Here attosecond pulses allow to image plasmon buildup and localization.