Absolute phase effect in ultrafast optical responses of metal nanostructures

We predict that nonlinear ultrafast electron photoemission by strong optical fields and, potentially, other nonlinear optical responses of metal nanostructures significantly depend on the absolute (carrier–envelope) phase of excitation pulses. Strong enhancement of the local optical fields produces these responses at excitation intensities lower by order(s) of magnitude than for known systems. Prospective applications include control of ultrafast electron emission and electron injection into nanosystems. A wider class of prospective applications is the determination of the absolute phase of pulses emitted by lasers and atoms, molecules, and condensed matter at relatively low intensities.