Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) can be supported by metallic nanoparticles and engineered nanostructures. An understanding of the spatially resolved near-field properties and dynamics of LSPR is important, but remains experimentally challenging. We report experimental studies toward this aim using photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) with high spatial resolution of sub-10 nm. Various engineered gold nanostructure arrays (such as rods, nanodisk-like particles and dimers) are investigated via PEEM using near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond laser pulses as the excitation source. When the LSPR wavelengths overlap the spectrum of the femtosecond pulses, the LSPR is efficiently excited and promotes multiphoton photoemission, which is correlated with the local intensity of the metallic nanoparticles in the near field. Thus, the local field distribution of the LSPR on different Au nanostructures can be directly explored and discussed using the PEEM images. In addition, the dynamics of the LSPR is studied by combining interferometric time-resolved pump-probe technique and PEEM. Detailed information on the oscillation and dephasing of the LSPR field can be obtained. The results identify PEEM as a powerful tool for accessing the near-field mapping and dynamic properties of plasmonic nanostructures.

Electronic plasma induced by a focused femtosecond pulse (130 fs, 800 nm) in fused silica was investigated by use of pump–probe technology. Pump and probe shadow imaging and interferometric fringe imaging were combined to determine electronic collision time $\tau$ in the conduction band, and $\tau$ was measured to be 1.7 fs at an electron density near $5\times {10}^{19} {\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$. The lifetime of the electronic plasma is also measured to be $\sim$170 fs by use of the time-resolved shadow imaging technique.

Dipole and quadrupole modes are the two lowest orders of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) eigenmodes in metallic nanoparticles. Of these two modes, the quadrupole mode is forbidden for symmetric metallic nanoparticles excited by linearly polarized light at normal incidence. Here, we demonstrate excitation of the quadrupole mode in symmetrical gold (Au) nanoblocks shined with s-polarized light at oblique incidence. In particular, we probe the near-field LSPR in Au nanoblocks using photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) and find that at oblique incidence, the dipole and quadrupole modes can be selectively excited, in terms of near-field enhancement, by manipulating the light polarization state. More importantly, by time-resolved PEEM measurements, we experimentally demonstrate that the quadrupole mode in symmetrical Au nanoblocks has longer dephasing time than that of the dipole mode.

Strong coupling between two resonance modes leads to the formation of new hybrid modes exhibiting disparate characteristics owing to the reversible exchange of information between different uncoupled modes. Here, we realize the strong coupling between the localized surface plasmon resonance and surface plasmon polariton Bloch wave using multilayer nanostructures. An anticrossing behavior with a splitting energy of 144 meV can be observed from the far-field spectra. More importantly, we investigate the near-field properties in both the frequency and time domains using photoemission electron microscopy. In the frequency domain, the near-field spectra visually demonstrate normal-mode splitting and display the extent of coupling. Importantly, the variation of the dephasing time of the hybrid modes against the detuning is observed directly in the time domain. These findings signify the evolution of the dissipation and the exchange of information in plasmonic strong coupling systems and pave the way to manipulate the dephasing time of plasmon modes, which can benefit many applications of plasmonics.