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Ultrafast Near-Field Dynamics in Silver Nanowires Driven by Few-Cycle Short-Wave Infrared Pulses

Zaiats, Nelia LU orcid ; Wittenbecher, Lukas LU ; Sytcevich, Ivan LU ; Viotti, Anne Lise LU orcid ; Guo, Chen LU ; Babu, Chandni LU ; Zhuo, Xiaolu ; Liz-Marzán, Luis M. ; Dias, Eduardo J.C. and García de Abajo, F. Javier , et al. (2026) In ACS Photonics 13(8). p.2248-2259
Abstract

Time-resolved imaging of plasmonic near fields is well-established at visible wavelengths but remains largely unexplored in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) range. Here, we use time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy (TR-PEEM) to directly visualize ultrafast plasmon dynamics in silver nanowires driven by a few-cycle SWIR pulses. We observe strong electric-field enhancement localized at the nanowire ends, oscillating synchronously with the SWIR optical cycle. Both the local intensity and the temporal response vary within and between individual nanowires. Time-dependent linear modeling reveals that subwavelength variations in nanowire length significantly affect the plasmon dynamics, while the precise end morphology influences... (More)

Time-resolved imaging of plasmonic near fields is well-established at visible wavelengths but remains largely unexplored in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) range. Here, we use time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy (TR-PEEM) to directly visualize ultrafast plasmon dynamics in silver nanowires driven by a few-cycle SWIR pulses. We observe strong electric-field enhancement localized at the nanowire ends, oscillating synchronously with the SWIR optical cycle. Both the local intensity and the temporal response vary within and between individual nanowires. Time-dependent linear modeling reveals that subwavelength variations in nanowire length significantly affect the plasmon dynamics, while the precise end morphology influences both dynamics and field enhancement. Electromagnetic simulations predict additional substrate-induced plasmon modes beyond the nanowire’s fundamental longitudinal resonances. Because the imaged photoemission signal depends highly nonlinearly on the local electric field at the wire–vacuum interface, it is dominated by emission from the nanowire ends, suppressing weaker substrate-induced modes. The photoemission yield shows a lower-than-expected power-law dependence with incident field intensity, suggesting the potential onset of strong-field effects beyond simple perturbative multiphoton emission. These results establish silver nanowires as efficient local SWIR field concentrators and demonstrate that their tunable ultrafast plasmonic responses can be imaged and filtered using photoelectrons, offering promising avenues for nanoscale photonic applications and ultrafast control of electron emission.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
near-field dynamics, photoemission electron microscopy, short-wave infrared pulses, silver nanowires, time-resolved imaging
in
ACS Photonics
volume
13
issue
8
pages
12 pages
publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
external identifiers
  • pmid:42004775
  • scopus:105036437744
ISSN
2330-4022
DOI
10.1021/acsphotonics.6c00044
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
dbb9df4f-42a8-4010-95ad-5f6140958ad9
date added to LUP
2026-05-27 10:43:49
date last changed
2026-08-18 03:27:56
@article{dbb9df4f-42a8-4010-95ad-5f6140958ad9,
  abstract     = {{<p>Time-resolved imaging of plasmonic near fields is well-established at visible wavelengths but remains largely unexplored in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) range. Here, we use time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy (TR-PEEM) to directly visualize ultrafast plasmon dynamics in silver nanowires driven by a few-cycle SWIR pulses. We observe strong electric-field enhancement localized at the nanowire ends, oscillating synchronously with the SWIR optical cycle. Both the local intensity and the temporal response vary within and between individual nanowires. Time-dependent linear modeling reveals that subwavelength variations in nanowire length significantly affect the plasmon dynamics, while the precise end morphology influences both dynamics and field enhancement. Electromagnetic simulations predict additional substrate-induced plasmon modes beyond the nanowire’s fundamental longitudinal resonances. Because the imaged photoemission signal depends highly nonlinearly on the local electric field at the wire–vacuum interface, it is dominated by emission from the nanowire ends, suppressing weaker substrate-induced modes. The photoemission yield shows a lower-than-expected power-law dependence with incident field intensity, suggesting the potential onset of strong-field effects beyond simple perturbative multiphoton emission. These results establish silver nanowires as efficient local SWIR field concentrators and demonstrate that their tunable ultrafast plasmonic responses can be imaged and filtered using photoelectrons, offering promising avenues for nanoscale photonic applications and ultrafast control of electron emission.</p>}},
  author       = {{Zaiats, Nelia and Wittenbecher, Lukas and Sytcevich, Ivan and Viotti, Anne Lise and Guo, Chen and Babu, Chandni and Zhuo, Xiaolu and Liz-Marzán, Luis M. and Dias, Eduardo J.C. and García de Abajo, F. Javier and Vogelsang, Jan and L’Huillier, Anne and Arnold, Cord and Mikkelsen, Anders}},
  issn         = {{2330-4022}},
  keywords     = {{near-field dynamics; photoemission electron microscopy; short-wave infrared pulses; silver nanowires; time-resolved imaging}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{8}},
  pages        = {{2248--2259}},
  publisher    = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
  series       = {{ACS Photonics}},
  title        = {{Ultrafast Near-Field Dynamics in Silver Nanowires Driven by Few-Cycle Short-Wave Infrared Pulses}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.6c00044}},
  doi          = {{10.1021/acsphotonics.6c00044}},
  volume       = {{13}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}