Graz Advanced School of Science, PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GRAZ AND THE GRAZ UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Peter Dombi

Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching and Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest

Abstract:

Plasmonic nanoparticles found numerous applications in recent years including chemical sensing, photovoltaics and even a specific method of cancer therapy. In spite of this, it is not fully understood how their interaction with light takes place on ultrashort time-scales and how collective electron oscillations build up in nanoparticles. In line with these research goals, we investigated strong-field electron emission phenomena from metal nanoparticles illuminated by femtosecond laser pulses [1]. Significant electric field enhancement (up to factors of around 100) attributed to surface plasmons enable the experimental generation of 30-eV electrons in the nano-localized fields around the nanoparticles even at low exciting laser intensities. Clear correlation between the plasmonic resonance features of various nanoparticles and photoemission electron spectra was observed. I will also show another example of strong-field femtosecond interaction with plasmonic nanoparticles enabling the generation of THz radiation.

[1] P. Dombi et al., Nano Lett. 13, 674-678 (2013)