Onset of charge interaction in strong-field photoemission from nanometric needle tips

Strong-field photoemission from nanostructures and the associated temporally modulated currents play a key role in the development of ultrafast vacuum optoelectronics. Optical light fields could push their operation bandwidth into the petahertz domain. A critical aspect of their functionality in the context of applications is the impact of charge interaction effects. Here, we investigated the photoemission and photocurrents from nano metric tungsten needle tips exposed to carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-controlled few-cycle laser fields. We report a characteristic rapid increase in the intensity-rescaled cutoff energies of emitted electrons beyond a certain intensity value. By comparison with simulations, we identify this feature as the onset of charge-interaction dominated photoemission dynamics. Our results are anticipated to be relevant also for the strong-field photoemission from other nanostructures, including photoemission from plasmonic nanobowtie antennas used in CEP-detection and for PHz-scale devices.

Automated summary

Research on photoemission and photocurrents from nano-sized tungsten needle tips exposed to controlled laser fields revealed a rapid increase in emitted electron energies beyond a certain intensity threshold, indicating the onset of charge interaction dominated photoemission dynamics. This finding may also be relevant for photoemission from other nanostructures and PHz-scale devices.