Electric Field Resolved Image Formation in a Widefield Optical Microscope

Abstract

Visualizing the spatiotemporal evolution of the electric field of light is fundamental to optics, from designing photonic devices to developing next-generation microscopes. However, we lack the experimental tools to directly access the electric field of light in the sample plane of an optical microscope. Here, we introduce an all-optical imaging modality that resolves the electric field of light in the plane of a traditional widefield transmission optical microscope with 100-attosecond temporal and 200-nanometer spatial resolution. With this we demonstrate the delayed buildup of scattering contrast and pulse broadening through and around a thick MoTe2 flake - dynamics inaccessible via standard simulations. We showcase our technique's versatility by additionally resolving the full in-plane vector electric field lines during photoexcitation as the optical pulse propagates through and around the MoTe2 flake.