Subwavelength imaging and control of ultrafast optical near-field under resonant- and off-resonant excitation of bowtie nanostructures

We demonstrate subwavelength imaging and control of localized near-field distribution under resonant and off-resonant excitation of identical gold bowtie nanostructures through photoemission electron microscopy. Control of the near-field distribution was realized by polarization rotation of single femtosecond laser pulse and variation of the phase delay of two orthogonally polarized femtosecond laser pulses. We show that the localized optical near-field distribution can be well controlled either among the corners of the nano-prisms in the bowtie for resonant excitation or the edges for off-resonant excitation. Abetter visualization of the PEEM image is achieved for resonant excitation than in the case of off-resonant excitation. The experimental results of the optical near-field distribution control are well reproduced by finite-difference time-domain simulations and understood by linear combination of electric charge distribution of the bowtie by s- and p-polarized light illumination. In addition, a shift of the near-field excitation position with inverted or unchanged phase, alternatively an un-shift of the excitation position but only with inverted phase of the near-field, can be realized by rotating the polarization angle of a single pulse and coherent control of two orthogonally polarized fs laser pulses.