Clocking plasmon nanofocusing by THz near-field streaking

Abstract

We apply terahertz (THz) near-field streaking in a nanofocusing geometry to investigate plasmon polariton propagation on the shaft of a conical nanotip. By evaluating the delay between a streaking spectrogram for plasmon-induced photoemission with a measurement for direct apex excitation, we obtain an average plasmon group velocity, which is in agreement with numerical simulations. Combining plasmon-induced photoemission with THz near-field streaking facilitates extensive control over localized photoelectron sources for time-resolved imaging and diffraction.