Perspective on Petahertz Electronics and Attosecond Nanoscopy

Abstract

The field of attosecond nanophysics, combining the research areas of attosecond physics with nanoscale physics, has experienced a considerable rise in recent years both experimentally and theoretically. Its foundation rests on the sub-cycle manipulation and sampling of the coupled electron and near-field dynamics on the nanoscale. Attosecond nanophysics not only addresses questions of strong fundamental interest in strong-field light-matter interactions at the nanoscale, but also could eventually lead to a considerable number of applications in ultrafast, petahertz-scale electronics, and ultrafast metrology for microscopy or nanoscopy. In this perspective, we outline the current frontiers, challenges, and future directions in the field, with particular emphasis on the development of petahertz electronics and attosecond nanoscopy.

Light phase detection with on-chip petahertz electronic networks

“…In addition, the nanoantenna arrays demonstrated in this work can be viewed as optical-field-driven, PHz integrated circuits with identical individual devices. By modifying the interconnection and integrating heterogeneous devices and materials, this study will inform the development of more complex integrated circuits of PHz electronics 24 , 55 , 56 , as well as on-chip integrated platforms for attosecond and strong-field science.…”

“…These petahertz devices rely on the attosecond-level temporal response of optical-field-driven photocurrents that result from the interaction of strong electric fields (tens of GV/m) with nanostructured materials [2][3][4][5][6][8][9][10]13,[15][16][17][19][20][21][22] (for review, see refs. 23,24 ). Unlike photocurrents in typical optoelectronic components, these optical-field-driven photocurrents are sensitive to changes in the electric field waveform of the optical pulse rather than the cycle-averaged photon density.…”

Active control of ultrafast electron dynamics in plasmonic gaps using an applied bias

“…Our study thus establishes a conceptual basis to extend the application of static or THz fields beyond the control of electron (photo)emission from metallic tips [14][15][16][17][18][19] and electron tunneling [37][38][39]. Along with dielectric, semiconductor [40][41][42][43], graphene-based [20,44], and tunneling [36] structures, the theoretical and experimental realization demonstrated here, analog to an ultrafast rectifying vacuum diode (see also [31]), paves the way towards petahertz electronics [45].…”

Femtosecond Field‐Driven On‐Chip Unidirectional Electronic Currents in Nonadiabatic Tunneling Regime

“…[ 8,9,11,12 ] Strong near‐field enhancement near the nanotips triggers electrons near the Fermi level to tunnel through the surface on a sub‐cycle timescale, [ 7,8,12–21 ] which is of particular interest in ultrafast time‐resolved electron nanoscopy. [ 12,21–25 ] Interference of the wavepackets tunneled at different cycles gives rise to pronounced peaks in the electron spectra separated by the energy of the pump photons. [ 8,11,12,21 ]…”