2015/03/02 by Luca Piazza, Tom T. A. Lummen, Erik Quinonez +4 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research #Photonic Crystals and Applications #Near-Field Optical Microscopy
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms7407
openalex publication_date 2015/03/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Surface plasmon polaritons can confine electromagnetic fields in subwavelength spaces and are of interest for photonics, optical data storage devices and biosensing applications. In analogy to photons, they exhibit wave-particle duality, whose different aspects have recently been observed in separate tailored experiments. Here we demonstrate the ability of ultrafast transmission electron microscopy to simultaneously image both the spatial interference and the quantization of such confined plasmonic fields. Our experiments are accomplished by spatiotemporally overlapping electron and light pulses on a single nanowire suspended on a graphene film. The resulting energy exchange between single electrons and the quanta of the photoinduced near-field is imaged synchronously with its spatial interference pattern. This methodology enables the control and visualization of plasmonic fields at the nanoscale, providing a promising tool for understanding the fundamental properties of confined electromagnetic fields and the development of advanced photonic circuits.