| Abstract: | Attosecond science is based on steering electron motion by the electric field of a strong laser pulse. It has enabled the observation of ultrafast electron dynamics in atoms, molecules and solids on its natural time scale, the attosecond domain (1as = 10-18s). In my talk, I will show that attosecond science can be extended to the nano-scale, opening up a new perspective for nanoscience and ultrafast spectroscopy. In a pioneering experiment, we demonstrate that electron emission from a metallic nanotip can be controlled by the waveform of the electric field of a laser pulse. We employ nanotip photoemission to probe the local phase and the amplitude of a focused broadband laser beam and a plasmonic field with attosecond and nanometer resolution. I will also present a gas-phase attosecond investigation where we directly determine scattering phase shifts in simple atomic systems using interferometry in the extreme-ultraviolet spectral domain. Looking forward, our research bears the potential to shed new light on quantum optics, plasmonics, molecular electronics, surface science and femtochemistry with extreme spatio-temporal resolving power |
