Ultrafast multi-terahertz nano-spectroscopy with sub-cycle temporal resolution

The authors demonstrate ultrabroadband time-resolved THz spectroscopy on a single InAs nanowire with 10 nm spatial resolution and sub-100 fs time resolution. Phase-locked ultrashort pulses in the rich terahertz spectral range1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 have provided key insights into phenomena as diverse as quantum confinement7, first-order phase transitions8,12, high-temperature superconductivity11 and carrier transport in nanomaterials1,6,13,14,15. Ultrabroadband electro-optic sampling of few-cycle field transients1 can even reveal novel dynamics that occur faster than a single oscillation cycle of light4,8,10. However, conventional terahertz spectroscopy is intrinsically restricted to ensemble measurements by the diffraction limit. As a result, it measures dielectric functions averaged over the size, structure, orientation and density of nanoparticles, nanocrystals or nanodomains. Here, we extend ultrabroadband time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy to the sub-nanoparticle scale (10 nm) by combining sub-cycle, field-resolved detection (10 fs) with scattering-type near-field scanning optical microscopy (s-NSOM)16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26. We trace the time-dependent dielectric function at the surface of a single photoexcited InAs nanowire in all three spatial dimensions and reveal the ultrafast (<50 fs) formation of a local carrier depletion layer.