Ultrafast imaging of plasmons in a transmission electron microscope

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. However, as the nanoscale is approached in increasingly small plasmonic and photonic systems, experimentally observing their behavior involves ever more stringent requirements in terms of both temporal and spatial resolution. This talk focuses on the use of time-resolved Photon-Induced Near-Field Electron Microscopy (PINEM) to study the excitation, propagation, (self-) interference and dynamics of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in various plasmonic nanostructures with both nanometer and ultrafast resolution in a transmission electron microscope. Using this field-of-view technique, we directly show how photo-excited plasmonic interference patterns are controlled through the combination of excitation polarization and nanostructure geometry. Moreover, we capture the propagation of the photo-induced self-interfering plasmonic wave, clearly demonstrating the effects of axial confinement in nanostructured plasmonic thin film stacks.