title: Time-resolved analysis of strong-field induced plasmon oscillations in metal clusters by spectral interferometry with few-cycle laser fields.
abstract: We propose a scheme for ultrafast real-time imaging of laser-induced collective electron oscillations (Mie plasmons) in gas phase metal clusters by interferometrically stable scanning of two intense few-cycle optical laser pulses. The feasibility of our nonlinear spectral interferometry method with experimentally accessible observables is tested in a theoretical case study on simple-metal clusters (Na(147)). The results show that the plasmon period and lifetime as well as the phase and relative amplitude of the collective electron motion can be extracted with sub-fs resolution. The access to nonlinear response effects, as the demonstrated increase of the plasmon lifetime with laser intensity due to ionization-induced contraction of the electron cloud, opens up vast opportunities for interrogating ultrafast many-particle dynamics in nanosystems under strong laser fields with unprecedented resolution.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physik, Universität Rostock, Universitätsplatz 3, 18051 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Köhn
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fennel
mesh_terms: D007834:Lasers; D008857:Microscopy, Interference; D011789:Quantum Theory; D012964:Sodium / Q000737:chemistry*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D012964:Sodium