Imaging and controlling plasmonic interference fields at buried interfaces

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13156
• Publication Date: 2016-10-11T09:22:27Z
• Authors: Tom T. A. Lummen; Raymond J. Lamb; Gabriele Berruto; Thomas LaGrange; Luca Dal Negro; F. Javier García ...; Damien McGrouther; B. Barwick; F. Carbone
• Keywords: Nanophotonics; Nanometre

Capturing and controlling plasmons at buried interfaces with nanometre femtosecond resolution has yet to be achieved is critical for next generation plasmonic devices. Here we use light excite interference patterns a metal-dielectric interface in nanostructured thin film. Plasmons are launched from photoexcited array of nanocavities their propagation followed via photon-induced near-field electron microscopy (PINEM). The resulting movie directly captures the plasmon dynamics, allowing quantification group velocity ∼0.3 times speed light, consistent our theoretical predictions. Furthermore, show that polarization nanocavity design can tailored shape transient gratings nanoscale. This work, demonstrating dynamical imaging PINEM, paves way visualization control fields advanced heterostructures based on novel two-dimensional materials such as graphene, MoS2, ultrathin metal films.