Hot Electron Nanoscopy and Spectroscopy (HENs)

This chapter includes a brief description of different laser coupling methods with guided surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes at the surface of a cone. It shows some devices, their electromagnetic simulations, and their optical characterization. A theoretical section illustrates the optical and quantum description of the hot charge generation rate as obtained for the SPP propagation along the nanocone in adiabatic compression. The chapter also shows some experimental results concerning the application of the hot electron nanoscopy and spectroscopy (HENs) in the so-called Schottky configuration, highlighting the sensitivity and the nanoscale resolution of the technique. The comparison with Kelvin probe and other electric atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques points out the intrinsic advantages of the HENs. In the end, some further insights are given about the possibility of exploiting HENs with a pulsed laser at the femtosecond time scale without significant pulse broadening and dispersion.