No Arabic abstract
The active control of matter by strong electromagnetic fields is of growing importance, with applications all across the optical spectrum from the extreme-ultraviolet to the far-infrared. In recent years, phase-stable terahertz (THz) fields have shown tremendous potential in the observation and manipulation of elementary excitations in complex systems. The combination of concepts from attosecond science with advanced THz technology facilitates novel spectroscopic schemes, such as THz streaking. In general, driving charges at lower frequency enhances interaction energies and can promote drastically different dynamics. For example, mid-infrared excitation induces field-driven sub-cycle electron dynamics in nanostructure nearfields. Such frequency scalings will also impact nanostructure-based streaking, which has been theoretically proposed. Here, we experimentally demonstrate extensive control over nanostructure photoelectron emission using single-cycle THz transients. The locally enhanced THz near-field at a nanotip significantly amplifies or suppresses the detected photocurrent. We present field-driven streaking spectroscopy with spectral compression and expansion arising from electron propagation within the nanolocalized volume. THz near-field streaking produces rich spectrotemporal features and will yield unprecedented control over ultrashort electron pulses for imaging and spectroscopy.
We report on an ultrafast photoinduced phase transition with a strikingly long-lived Martensitic anomaly driven by above-threshold single-cycle terahertz (THz) pulses in Nb$_3$Sn. A non-thermal, THz-induced depletion of low frequency conductivity indicates increased gap splitting of high energy $Gamma_{12}$ bands by removal of their degeneracies which enhances the Martensitic phase. In contrast, optical pumping leads to a $Gamma_{12}$ gap melting. Such light-induced non-equilibrium Martensitic instability persists up to a critical temperature $sim$100 K, i.e., more than twice the equilibrium temperature, and can be stabilized beyond technologically-relevant, nanosecond timescales. Together with first-principle simulations, we identify a compelling THz tuning of structural fluctuations via E$_u$ phonons to achieve a non-equilibrium ordering at high temperatures far exceeding those for equilibrium states.
We study the excitation of electron currents in a transparent cell of sub-millimeter size filled by an atomic gas and illuminated by an intense two-color femtosecond laser pulse. The pulse consists of a strong fundamental component and its second harmonic of low intensity, both circularly polarized. We show that for sufficiently small $20mu$m cells the plasma oscillation excited by asymmetric ionization is almost spatially homogeneous within the interaction volume. This coherent dipole plasma oscillation results in a remarkably efficient conversion of the electron energy into that of radiation emitted in the terahertz frequency domain. Simultaneously, strong quasi-static electric fields of maximal strength $E_msimeq 10$MV/cm are shown to exist inside the cell during several hundred femtoseconds after the ionizing two-color laser pulse has gone.
The results of high-field terahertz transmission experiments on n-doped silicon (carrier concentration of $8.7times10^{16}$ cm$^{-3}$) are presented. We use terahertz pulses with electric field strengths up to 3.1 MV cm$^{-1}$ and a pulse duration of 700 fs. Huge transmittance enhancement of $sim$90 times is observed with increasing of the terahertz electric field strengths within the range of 1.5--3.1 MV cm$^{-1}$.
We demonstrate coherent control of multiphoton and above-threshold photoemission from a single solid-state nanoemitter driven by a fundamental and a weak second harmonic laser pulse. Depending on the relative phase of the two pulses, electron emission is modulated with a contrast of the oscillating current signal of up to 94%. Electron spectra reveal that all observed photon orders are affected simultaneously and similarly. We confirm that photoemission takes place within 10 fs. Accompanying simulations indicate that the current modulation with its large contrast results from two interfering quantum pathways leading to electron emission.
The availability of few-cycle optical pulses opens a window to physical phenomena occurring on the attosecond time scale. In order to take full advantage of such pulses, it is crucial to measure and stabilise their carrier-envelope (CE) phase, i.e., the phase difference between the carrier wave and the envelope function. We introduce a novel approach to determine the CE phase by down-conversion of the laser light to the terahertz (THz) frequency range via plasma generation in ambient air, an isotropic medium where optical rectification (down-conversion) in the forward direction is only possible if the inversion symmetry is broken by electrical or optical means. We show that few-cycle pulses directly produce a spatial charge asymmetry in the plasma. The asymmetry, associated with THz emission, depends on the CE phase, which allows for a determination of the phase by measurement of the amplitude and polarity of the THz pulse.