IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms13769.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Single-cycle surface plasmon polaritons on a bare metal wire excited by relativistic electrons

Author

Listed:
  • W.P.E.M. op ‘t Root

    (Coherence and Quantum Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology)

  • G.J.H. Brussaard

    (Coherence and Quantum Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology)

  • P.W. Smorenburg

    (Coherence and Quantum Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology)

  • O.J. Luiten

    (Coherence and Quantum Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology
    Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology)

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) pulses are applied in areas as diverse as materials science, communication and biosensing. Techniques for subwavelength concentration of THz pulses give access to a rapidly growing range of spatial scales and field intensities. Here we experimentally demonstrate a method to generate intense THz pulses on a metal wire, thereby introducing the possibility of wave-guiding and focussing of the full THz pulse energy to subwavelength spotsizes. This enables endoscopic sensing, single-shot subwavelength THz imaging and study of strongly nonlinear THz phenomena. We generate THz surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) by launching electron bunches onto the tip of a bare metal wire. Bunches with 160 pC charge and ≈6 ps duration yield SPPs with 6–10 ps duration and 0.4±0.1 MV m−1 electric field strength on a 1.5 mm diameter aluminium wire. These are the most intense SPPs reported on a wire. The SPPs are shown to propagate around a 90° bend.

Suggested Citation

  • W.P.E.M. op ‘t Root & G.J.H. Brussaard & P.W. Smorenburg & O.J. Luiten, 2016. "Single-cycle surface plasmon polaritons on a bare metal wire excited by relativistic electrons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms13769
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13769
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13769
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms13769?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms13769. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.