Ultrafast spatio-temporal near-field control

The analysis of different illumination geometries shows that the dominant control mechanism is based on two-pathway interference, i.e. the modes excited by the two incident polarization components interfere locally and thus determine the local field. The demonstrated substantial degree of controllability for the near-field distribution opens a route to simultaneous spatial and time-resolved optical near-field spectroscopy. Furthermore, novel fascinating coherent control schemes can be implemented in which the electric field is adapted and optimized in three polarization directions as well as three spatial coordinates on a nanometer length scale.