Field-driven photoemission from nanostructures quenches the quiver motion.

Strong-field physics, an extreme limit of light-matter interaction, is expanding into the realm of surfaces and nanostructures from its origin in atomic and molecular science. The attraction of nanostructures lies in two intimately connected features: local intensity enhancement and sub-wavelength confinement of optical fields. Local intensity enhancement facilitates access to the strong-field regime and has already sparked various applications, whereas spatial localization has the potential to generate strong-field dynamics exclusive to nanostructures. However, the observation of features unattainable in gaseous media is challenged by many-body effects and material damage, which arise under intense illumination of dense systems. Here, we non-destructively access this regime in the solid state by employing single plasmonic nanotips and few-cycle mid-infrared pulses, making use of the wavelength-dependence of the interaction, that is, the ponderomotive energy. We investigate strong-field photoelectron emission and acceleration from single nanostructures over a broad spectral range, and find kinetic energies of hundreds of electronvolts. We observe the transition to a new regime in strong-field dynamics, in which the electrons escape the nanolocalized field within a fraction of an optical half-cycle. The transition into this regime, characterized by a spatial adiabaticity parameter, would require relativistic electrons in the absence of nanostructures. These results establish new degrees of freedom for the manipulation and control of electron dynamics on femtosecond and attosecond timescales, combining optical near-fields and nanoscopic sources.

Optical rogue waves.

Recent observations show that the probability of encountering an extremely large rogue wave in the open ocean is much larger than expected from ordinary wave-amplitude statistics. Although considerable effort has been directed towards understanding the physics behind these mysterious and potentially destructive events, the complete picture remains uncertain. Furthermore, rogue waves have not yet been observed in other physical systems. Here, we introduce the concept of optical rogue waves, a counterpart of the infamous rare water waves. Using a new real-time detection technique, we study a system that exposes extremely steep, large waves as rare outcomes from an almost identically prepared initial population of waves. Specifically, we report the observation of rogue waves in an optical system, based on a microstructured optical fibre, near the threshold of soliton-fission supercontinuum generation--a noise-sensitive nonlinear process in which extremely broadband radiation is generated from a narrowband input. We model the generation of these rogue waves using the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation and demonstrate that they arise infrequently from initially smooth pulses owing to power transfer seeded by a small noise perturbation.

Seeded supercontinuum generation with optical parametric down-conversion.

The transition between modulation instability gain and induced soliton fission in nonlinear fiber is experimentally investigated by coherent seeding with the two-color output of an optical parametric oscillator. This approach produces supercontinuum spectra displaying persistent, fine modulation from seeding-induced noise reduction. Numerical simulations support the findings.

Real-time spectral interferometry probes the internal dynamics of femtosecond soliton molecules.

Solitons, particle-like excitations ubiquitous in many fields of physics, have been shown to exhibit bound states akin to molecules. The formation of such temporal soliton bound states and their internal dynamics have escaped direct experimental observation. By means of an emerging time-stretch technique, we resolve the evolution of femtosecond soliton molecules in the cavity of a few-cycle mode-locked laser. We track two- and three-soliton bound states over hundreds of thousands of consecutive cavity roundtrips, identifying fixed points and periodic and aperiodic molecular orbits. A class of trajectories acquires a path-dependent geometrical phase, implying that its dynamics may be topologically protected. These findings highlight the importance of real-time detection in resolving interactions in complex nonlinear systems, including the dynamics of soliton bound states, breathers, and rogue waves.

Noise figure and photon statistics in coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering.

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is a well-known Raman scattering process that occurs when Stokes, anti-Stokes and pump waves are properly phase-matched. Using a quantum-field approach with Langevin noise sources, we calculate the noise figure for wavelength conversion between the Stokes and anti-Stokes waves in CARS and show its dependence on phase mismatch. Under phase matched conditions, the minimum noise figure is approximately 3 dB, with a correction that depends on the pump frequency, Stokes shift, refractive indices, and nonlinear susceptibilities. We calculate the photon statistics of CARS and show that the photon number distribution is non-Gaussian. Our findings may be significant for currently pursued applications of CARS including wavelength conversion in data transmission and spectroscopic detection of dilute biochemical species.

Active control of rogue waves for stimulated supercontinuum generation.

We demonstrate that rogue waves provide a powerful tool to actively control a nonlinear system with minimal effort. Specifically, optical rogue waves--rare, bright flashes of broadband light arising in subthreshold supercontinuum generation--are initiated by an exceedingly weak stimulus. Using this effect, we produce an optically switchable, ultrastable, and bright supercontinuum with greatly enhanced coherence.

Localized multiphoton emission of femtosecond electron pulses from metal nanotips.

Intense multiphoton electron emission is observed from sharp (approximately 20 nm radius) metallic tips illuminated with weak 100-pJ, 7-fs light pulses. Local field enhancement, evidenced by concurrent nonlinear light generation, confines the emission to the tip apex. Electrons are emitted from a highly excited nonequilibrium carrier distribution, resulting in a marked change of the absolute electron flux and its dependence on optical power with the tip bias voltage. The strong optical nonlinearity of the electron emission allows us to image the local optical field near a metallic nanostructure with a spatial resolution of a few tens of nanometers in a novel tip-enhanced electron emission microscope.

Fast light, slow light, and phase singularities: a connection to generalized weak values.

We demonstrate that Aharonov-Albert-Vaidman weak values have a direct relationship with the response function of a system, and have a much wider range of applicability in both the classical and quantum domains than previously thought. Using this idea, we have built an optical system, based on a birefringent photonic crystal, with an infinite number of weak values. In this system, the propagation speed of a polarized light pulse displays both superluminal and slow light behavior with a sharp transition between the two regimes. We show that this system's response possesses two-dimensional, vortex-antivortex phase singularities. Important consequences for optical signal processing are discussed.

Demonstration of superluminal effects in an absorptionless, nonreflective system.

We present an experimental and theoretical study of a simple, passive system consisting of a birefringent, two-dimensional photonic crystal and a polarizer in series, and show that superluminal dispersive effects can arise even though no incident radiation is absorbed or reflected. We demonstrate that a vector formulation of the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relations facilitates an understanding of these counterintuitive effects.