EurekAlert December 23, 2019
The experimental set-up used by an international team of researchers (Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg) involved nanoscale gold antennae as well as an ultrafast laser capable of emitting one hundred million single-cycle light pulses per second in order to generate a measurable current. The bowtie design of the optical antenna allowed for a sub-wavelength and sub-cycle spatio-temporal concentration of the electric field of the laser pulse into the gap of a width of six nm. As a result of the highly nonlinear character of electron tunneling out of the metal and acceleration over the gap in the optical field, they were able to switch electronic currents at speeds of approximately 600 attoseconds. The study opens new opportunities for understanding how light interacts with condensed matter, enabling observation of quantum phenomena at unprecedented temporal and spatial scales…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
This is an illustration of how electrons can be imagined moving between two arms of a metallic nanoantenna, driven by a single-cycle light wave. Credit: University of Konstanz