We report the creation and real-space observation of magnetic structures with well-defined topological properties and a lateral size as low as about 150~nm. They are generated in a thin ferrimagnetic film by ultrashort single optical laser pulses. Thanks to their topological properties, such structures can be classified as Skyrmions of a particular type that does not require an externally applied magnetic field for stabilization. Besides Skyrmions, we are able to generate magnetic features with topological characteristics that can be tuned by changing the laser fluence. The stability of such features is accounted for by an analytical model based on the interplay between the exchange and the magnetic dipole-dipole interactions.

We propose a novel cross resonant optical antenna consisting of two perpendicular nanosized gold dipole antennas with a common feed gap. We demonstrate that the cross antenna is able to convert propagating fields of any polarization state into correspondingly polarized, localized, and enhanced fields and vice versa. The cross antenna structure therefore opens the road towards the control of light-matter interactions based on polarized light as well as the analysis of polarized fields on the nanometer scale.

Magnetic circular dichroism has been used to study the orbital and spin moments in supported nanoscale Fe clusters deposited in situ from a gas aggregation source onto highly oriented pyrolitic graphite in ultrahigh vacuum. Mass-filtered (2.4 nm, 610 atoms) and unfiltered (1–5 nm, 40–5000 atoms) clusters at low coverage have an orbital magnetic moment about twice that of bulk Fe. With increasing coverage the orbital moment of the unfiltered clusters converges to the bulk value. There is no detectable change in the spin moment as a function of coverage. Mass-filtered clusters show an increase in the magnetic dipole moment which we ascribe to distortion resulting from their higher impact energy. An increasing magnetic remanence with coverage is found.

Two-photon photoluminescence (TPPL) from gold nanostructures is becoming one of the most relevant tools for plasmon-assisted biological imaging and photothermal therapy as well as for the investigation of plasmonic devices. Here we study the yield of TPPL as a function of the temporal width $\delta$ of the excitation laser pulses for a fixed average power. In the $\delta >1\text{ps}$ regime, the TPPL yield decreases as $\delta$ is increased, while for shorter pulse widths it becomes independent of $\delta$ and, consequently, of the laser-pulse peak power. This peculiar dynamics is understood and modeled by considering that two-photon absorption in Au is a two-step process governed by the lifetime of the metastable state populated by the first photon absorption.