https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/s10053-022-00430-6
Regular Article – Optical Phenomena and Photonics
Imaging elliptically polarized infrared near-fields on nanoparticles by strong-field dissociation of functional surface groups
1
Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, D-85748, Garching, Germany
2
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, D-85748, Garching, Germany
3
State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, 200241, Shanghai, China
4
Chair in Hybrid Nanosystems, Nanoinstitute Munich, Königinstrasse 10, Faculty of Physics LMU Munich, 80539, Munich, Germany
5
Department of Physics, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, London, UK
6
School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, 3800, Clayton Victoria, Australia
7
Departamento Fisica, Escuela Politecnica Nacional, 170109, Quito, Ecuador
8
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 94025, Menlo Park, CA, USA
9
Applied Physics Department, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, CA, USA
Received:
21
January
2022
Accepted:
31
May
2022
Published online:
27
June
2022
We investigate the strong-field ion emission from the surface of isolated silica nanoparticles aerosolized from an alcoholic solution, and demonstrate the applicability of the recently reported near-field imaging at 720 nm [Rupp et al., Nat. Comm., 10(1):4655, 2019] to longer wavelength (2 
m) and polarizations with arbitrary ellipticity. Based on the experimental observations, we discuss the validity of a previously introduced semi-classical model, which is based on near-field driven charge generation by a Monte-Carlo approach and classical propagation. We furthermore clarify the role of the solvent in the surface composition of the nanoparticles in the interaction region. We find that upon injection of the nanoparticles into the vacuum, the alcoholic solvent evaporates on millisecond time scales, and that the generated ions originate predominantly from covalent bonds with the silica surface rather than from physisorbed solvent molecules. These findings have important implications for the development of future theoretical models of the strong-field ion emission from silica nanoparticles, and the application of near-field imaging and reaction dynamics of functional groups on isolated nanoparticles.
© The Author(s) 2022
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