Abstract:

A measurement on the temporal response of a plasmonic antenna at the femtosecond time scale is reported. The antenna consists of a square array of nanometer-size gold rods. The far-field dispersion of light reflected from the plasmonic antenna is found to be less than that of a 1.2 mm thick glass slide. Assuming a simple oscillating dipole model this implies that the near-field of the antenna may be used as an electron switch that responds faster than 20 fs. Alternatively, ultrafast electron diffraction may be used to investigate the near-field dynamics of the plasmonic antenna.