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Main Authors: Heimerl, Jonas, Meier, Stefan, Herzig, Anne, Hoffmann, Felix López, Seiffert, Lennart, Lesko, Daniel, Hillmann, Simon, Wittigschlager, Simon, Weitz, Tobias, Fennel, Thomas, Hommelhoff, Peter
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02673
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author Heimerl, Jonas
Meier, Stefan
Herzig, Anne
Hoffmann, Felix López
Seiffert, Lennart
Lesko, Daniel
Hillmann, Simon
Wittigschlager, Simon
Weitz, Tobias
Fennel, Thomas
Hommelhoff, Peter
author_facet Heimerl, Jonas
Meier, Stefan
Herzig, Anne
Hoffmann, Felix López
Seiffert, Lennart
Lesko, Daniel
Hillmann, Simon
Wittigschlager, Simon
Weitz, Tobias
Fennel, Thomas
Hommelhoff, Peter
contents Attosecond science, the electron control by the field of ultrashort laser pulses, is maturing into lightfield-driven electronics, called petahertz electronics. Based on optical field-driven nanostructures, elements for petahertz electronics have been demonstrated. These hinge on the understanding of the electron dynamics in the optical near field of the nanostructure. Here we show near field-induced low energy stripes (NILES) in carrier-envelope phase-dependent electron spectra, a new spectral feature appearing in the direct electrons emitted from a strongly driven nanostructure, i.e., in the easily accessible energy region between 0 and a few electron volts. NILES emerge due to the sub-cycle sensitivity of ponderomotive acceleration of electrons injected into a strong near field gradient by a few-cycle optical waveform. NILES enables us to track the emission of direct and re-scattered electrons down to sub-cycle time-scales and to infer the electron momentum width at emission. Because NILES shows up in the direct part of the electrons, a large fraction of the emitted electrons can now be steered in new ways, facilitating the isolation of individual electron bursts with high charge density of 430 attosecond duration. These results not only substantially advance the understanding of attosecond physics in optical near fields, but also provide new ways of electron control for the nascent field of petahertz electronics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_02673
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Attosecond physics in optical near fields
Heimerl, Jonas
Meier, Stefan
Herzig, Anne
Hoffmann, Felix López
Seiffert, Lennart
Lesko, Daniel
Hillmann, Simon
Wittigschlager, Simon
Weitz, Tobias
Fennel, Thomas
Hommelhoff, Peter
Optics
Attosecond science, the electron control by the field of ultrashort laser pulses, is maturing into lightfield-driven electronics, called petahertz electronics. Based on optical field-driven nanostructures, elements for petahertz electronics have been demonstrated. These hinge on the understanding of the electron dynamics in the optical near field of the nanostructure. Here we show near field-induced low energy stripes (NILES) in carrier-envelope phase-dependent electron spectra, a new spectral feature appearing in the direct electrons emitted from a strongly driven nanostructure, i.e., in the easily accessible energy region between 0 and a few electron volts. NILES emerge due to the sub-cycle sensitivity of ponderomotive acceleration of electrons injected into a strong near field gradient by a few-cycle optical waveform. NILES enables us to track the emission of direct and re-scattered electrons down to sub-cycle time-scales and to infer the electron momentum width at emission. Because NILES shows up in the direct part of the electrons, a large fraction of the emitted electrons can now be steered in new ways, facilitating the isolation of individual electron bursts with high charge density of 430 attosecond duration. These results not only substantially advance the understanding of attosecond physics in optical near fields, but also provide new ways of electron control for the nascent field of petahertz electronics.
title Attosecond physics in optical near fields
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02673