Speaker
Description
Strong laser-field emission from metals is a growing area of study owing to its applications in high-brightness cathodes and potentially as a high harmonic generation source. Nanopatterned plasmonic cathodes localize and enhance incident laser fields, reducing the spot size and increasing current density. Experiments have demonstrated that the nanoblade structure outperforms nanotips in the peak fields achievable before damage is inflicted. With more intense surface fields comes brighter emissions, so investigating the thermomechanical properties of these structures is crucial in their characterization. For intense, ultrafast illumination the electronic thermal and non-thermal dynamics near the apex are the dominant dispersive mechanisms at play, as electron-phonon interactions take place over much longer timescales. We study electronic heating and dissipation through three lenses: the temperature-squared heat equation, a quantum kinetic Boltzmann equation, and as a solid density plasma. We compare the nanoblade’s and nanotip’s performance in their achievable peak fields.
