Abstract

Carrier-envelope phase (CEP) detection of ultrashort optical pulses and low-energy waveform field sampling have recently been demonstrated using direct time-domain methods that exploit optical-field photoemission from plasmonic nanoantennas. These devices are compact and integratable solid-state detectors operating at optical frequencies under ambient conditions using low pulse energies (picojoule-level). Potential applications include frequency-comb stabilization, optical time-domain spectroscopy, compact tools for attosecond science and metrology, and petahertz-scale information processing. However, to date these devices have been driven by free-space optical waveforms and their implementation within integrated photonic platforms has yet to be demonstrated. In this work, we design and simulate fully-integrated plasmonic nanoantennas coupled to a Si $_{3}\text{N}_4$ -core waveguide for CEP detection. We find that when coupled to realistic on-chip, few-cycle supercontinuum sources, these devices are suitable for direct time-domain CEP detection within integrated photonic platforms. We estimate a signal-to-noise ratio of 30 dB at 50 kHz resolution bandwidth, and address technical details, such as the tuning of the nanoantennas plasmonic resonance, CEP slippage in the waveguide, optical losses, and sensitivity to driving pulse characteristics such as energy and duration. Our results provide the basis for future design and fabrication of time-domain CEP detectors and allow for the development of fully-integrated attosecond science applications, frequency-comb stabilization and light-wave-based PHz electronics.

Nanoantenna design for enhanced carrier–envelope-phase sensitivity

Drew Buckley, Yujia Yang, Yugu Yang-Keathley, Karl K. Berggren, and Phillip D. Keathley
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 38(9) C11-C21 (2021)

Few-cycle carrier envelope phase-dependent stereo detection of electrons

Aart J. Verhoef, Alma Fernández, Matthias Lezius, Kevin O'Keeffe, Matthias Uiberacker, and Ferenc Krausz
Opt. Lett. 31(23) 3520-3522 (2006)

Single-shot carrier–envelope-phase measurement in ambient air

M. Kubullek, Z. Wang, K. von der Brelje, D. Zimin, P. Rosenberger, J. Schötz, M. Neuhaus, S. Sederberg, A. Staudte, N. Karpowicz, M. F. Kling, and B. Bergues
Optica 7(1) 35-39 (2020)

Impact of DC bias on weak optical-field-driven electron emission in nano-vacuum-gap detectors

Marco Turchetti, Mina R. Bionta, Yujia Yang, Felix Ritzkowsky, Denis R. Candido, Michael E. Flatté, Karl K. Berggren, and Phillip D. Keathley
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 38(3) 1009-1016 (2021)

Carrier-envelope phase stable few-cycle pulses at 400 kHz for electron-ion coincidence experiments

Federico J. Furch, Sascha Birkner, Freek Kelkensberg, Achut Giree, Alexandria Anderson, Claus Peter Schulz, and Marc J. J. Vrakking
Opt. Express 21(19) 22671-22682 (2013)