Simulation of attosecond-resolved imaging of the plasmon electric field in metallic nanoparticles

Sub-cycle photoelectron streaking from silver plasmonic nanospheres is simulated using few-cycle laser pulses tuned both on and off the plasmon resonance (376nm vs 800nm, respectively) to initiate the plasmon. Phase-locked, isolated attosecond XUV pulses induce photoemission from the nanospheres, and two different types of streaking of the photoelectrons occur simultaneously due to the laser and plasmon electric fields. Streaking is simulated over a wide range of excitation pulse intensities, and final velocity distributions for the photoelectrons emitted at different times are calculated. The resulting velocity distributions exhibit several characteristics attributable to the plasmon electric field. The dipole moment amplitude can be reconstructed using velocity map imaging or time-of-flight photoelectron velocity measurements without separate measurement of the laser electric field or deconvolution using an assumed streaking trace shape. These results indicate that photoelectron experiments in table-top set-ups can provide unprecedented spatio-temporal information about sub-cycle plasmon dynamics in metallic nanostructures.