Numerical simulation of attosecond nanoplasmonic streaking

The characterization of the temporal profile of plasmonic fields is important both from the fundamental point of view and for potential applications in ultrafast nanoplasmonics. It has been proposed by Stockman et al (2007 Nat. Photonics 1 539) that the plasmonic electric field can be directly measured by the attosecond streaking technique; however, streaking from nanoplasmonic fields differs from streaking in the gas phase because of the field localization on the nanoscale. To understand streaking in this new regime, we have performed numerical simulations of attosecond streaking from fields localized in nanoantennas. In this paper, we present simulated streaked spectra for realistic experimental conditions and discuss the plasmonic field reconstruction from these spectra. We show that under certain circumstances when spatial averaging is included, a robust electric field reconstruction is possible.