Author, as appears in the article.: Liebtrau, Matthias; Sivis, Murat; Feist, Armin; Lourenco-Martins, Hugo; Pazos-Perez, Nicolas; Alvarez-Puebla, Ramon A.; Garcia de Abajo, F. Javier; Polman, Albert; Ropers, Claus;

Department: Química Física i Inorgànica

URV's Author/s: Alvarez Puebla, Ramon Angel / Pazos Pérez, Nicolás Carlos

Keywords: Surface plasmon resonance Spatial fourier transform Sailing vessels Quantum-information processing Plasmons Photons Numerical methods Nanotechnology Material characterizations Localized surface plasmon resonance Light-matter interactions Gold metallography Energy dissipation Electrons Electron trajectories Electron scattering Electron energy loss spectroscopy Electron emission Electric fields Electric field distributions Dissociation Cathodoluminescence spectroscopy Boundary element method

Abstract: The interplay between free electrons, light, and matter offers unique prospects for space, time, and energy resolved optical material characterization, structured light generation, and quantum information processing. Here, we study the nanoscale features of spontaneous and stimulated electron-photon interactions mediated by localized surface plasmon resonances at the tips of a gold nanostar using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), cathodoluminescence spectroscopy (CL), and photon-induced near-field electron microscopy (PINEM). Supported by numerical electromagnetic boundary-element method (BEM) calculations, we show that the different coupling mechanisms probed by EELS, CL, and PINEM feature the same spatial dependence on the electric field distribution of the tip modes. However, the electron-photon interaction strength is found to vary with the incident electron velocity, as determined by the spatial Fourier transform of the electric near-field component parallel to the electron trajectory. For the tightly confined plasmonic tip resonances, our calculations suggest an optimum coupling velocity at electron energies as low as a few keV. Our results are discussed in the context of more complex geometries supporting multiple modes with spatial and spectral overlap. We provide fundamental insights into spontaneous and stimulated electron-light-matter interactions with key implications for research on (quantum) coherent optical phenomena at the nanoscale.

Thematic Areas: Optics Electronic, optical and magnetic materials Ciência da computação Atomic and molecular physics, and optics

licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

Author's mail: ramon.alvarez@urv.cat nicolas.pazos@urv.cat

Author identifier: 0000-0003-4770-5756 0000-0002-2326-4231

Record's date: 2023-02-23

Journal volume: 10

Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Link to the original source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-021-00511-y

Licence document URL: http://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/

Papper original source: Light-Science & Applications. 10 (1):

APA: Liebtrau, Matthias; Sivis, Murat; Feist, Armin; Lourenco-Martins, Hugo; Pazos-Perez, Nicolas; Alvarez-Puebla, Ramon A.; Garcia de Abajo, F. Javier; Po (2021). Spontaneous and stimulated electron-photon interactions in nanoscale plasmonic near fields. Light-Science & Applications, 10(1), -. DOI: 10.1038/s41377-021-00511-y

Article's DOI: 10.1038/s41377-021-00511-y

Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Journal publication year: 2021

Publication Type: Journal Publications