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

authored by: Liping Shi, Ihar Babushkin, Anton Husakou, Oliver Melchert, Bettina Frank, Juemin Yi, Gustav Wetzel, Ayhan Demircan, Christoph Lienau, Harald Giessen, Misha Ivanov, Uwe Morgner, Milutin Kovacev
Abstract: Recently, asymmetric plasmonic nanojunctions [Karnetzky et. al., Nature Comm. 2471, 9 (2018)] have shown promise as on-chip electronic devices to convert femtosecond optical pulses to current bursts, with a bandwidth of multi-terahertz scale, although yet at low temperatures and pressures. Such nanoscale devices are of great interest for novel ultrafast electronics and opto-electronic applications. Here, we operate the device in air and at room temperature, revealing the mechanisms of photoemission from plasmonic nanojunctions, and the fundamental limitations on the speed of optical-to-electronic conversion. Inter-cycle interference of coherent electronic wavepackets results in a complex energy electron distribution and birth of multiphoton effects. This energy structure, as well as reshaping of the wavepackets during their propagation from one tip to the other, determine the ultrafast dynamics of the current. We show that, up to some level of approximation, the electron flight time is well-determined by the mean ponderomotive velocity in the driving field.
Organisation(s): Institute of Quantum Optics
PhoenixD: Photonics, Optics, and Engineering - Innovation Across Disciplines
Institute of Electronic Materials and Devices
QuantumFrontiers
External Organisation(s): Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy im Forschungsbund Berlin e.V. (MBI)
Westlake University
Westlake Institute for Advanced Study
University of Stuttgart
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Type: Article
Journal: Laser & photonics reviews
Volume: 15
No. of pages: 9
ISSN: 1863-8880
Publication date: 08.2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Condensed Matter Physics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Electronic version(s): https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.03091v1 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1002/lpor.202000475 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{e6d6f22389774511a6f6e3e8e39daf9e,
title = "Femtosecond Field-Driven On-Chip Unidirectional Electronic Currents in Nonadiabatic Tunneling Regime",
abstract = "Recently, asymmetric plasmonic nanojunctions [Karnetzky et. al., Nature Comm. 2471, 9 (2018)] have shown promise as on-chip electronic devices to convert femtosecond optical pulses to current bursts, with a bandwidth of multi-terahertz scale, although yet at low temperatures and pressures. Such nanoscale devices are of great interest for novel ultrafast electronics and opto-electronic applications. Here, we operate the device in air and at room temperature, revealing the mechanisms of photoemission from plasmonic nanojunctions, and the fundamental limitations on the speed of optical-to-electronic conversion. Inter-cycle interference of coherent electronic wavepackets results in a complex energy electron distribution and birth of multiphoton effects. This energy structure, as well as reshaping of the wavepackets during their propagation from one tip to the other, determine the ultrafast dynamics of the current. We show that, up to some level of approximation, the electron flight time is well-determined by the mean ponderomotive velocity in the driving field.",
keywords = "cond-mat.mes-hall, physics.optics, ionization, nanostructures, optoelectronics",
author = "Liping Shi and Ihar Babushkin and Anton Husakou and Oliver Melchert and Bettina Frank and Juemin Yi and Gustav Wetzel and Ayhan Demircan and Christoph Lienau and Harald Giessen and Misha Ivanov and Uwe Morgner and Milutin Kovacev",
note = "Funding Information: L.S. and I.B. contributed equally to this work. The authors acknowledge support from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (KO 3798/4‐1, BA 4156/4‐2, MO 850‐19/2, MO 850‐23/1) and from German Research Foundation under Germany's Excellence Strategy EXC‐2123 and Germany's Excellence Strategy within the Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD (EXC 2122, Project ID 390833453), Lower Saxony through 'Quanten und Nanometrologie' (QUANOMET, Project Nanophotonik). H.G. and B.F. acknowledge funding by ERC (ComplexPlas and 3D Printedoptics) and DFG (SPP1839). A.H. acknowledges funding from MSCA RISE project ID 823897. C.L. gratefully fully acknowledges the DFG (SPP 1839 and SPP1840) for financial support. L.S. is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 12004314), the open project program of Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics No. 2020WNLOKF004 and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. Q21A040010. MI acknowledges support by the DFG priority program QUTIF under grant agreement IV 152/6‐2 and the funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 899794. ",
year = "2021",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1002/lpor.202000475",
language = "English",
volume = "15",
journal = "Laser & photonics reviews",
issn = "1863-8880",
publisher = "Wiley-VCH Verlag",
number = "8",
}