Abstract

Miniaturized plasmonic and photonic integrated circuits are generally considered as the core of future generations of optoelectronic devices, due to their potential to bridge the size-compatibility gap between photonics and electronics [1,2]. However, as the nanoscale is approached in increasingly small plasmonic and photonic systems, the need to experimentally observe and characterize their behavior in detail faces increasingly stringent requirements in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, field of view, and acquisition time. This work focuses on a specific electron microscopy technique, Photon-Induced Near-Field Electron Microscopy (PINEM), which is capable of imaging optical evanescent fields and surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in nanoplasmonic structures with both nanometer and femtosecond resolution [3,4].

© 2015 IEEE