Sviatlana Viarbitskaya, Alexandre Teulle, Renaud Marty, Jadab Sharma, Christian Girard, Arnaud Arbouet & Erik Dujardin

The collective oscillation of electrons in metallic nanoparticles, called plasmons, generate high local fields which can be used to enhance nonlinear effects, or even generate lasing in spasers. Those processes strongly depend on the distribution of the electric field, or local density of state (LDOS). The LDOS can be predicted by theory or simulations, but it is difficult to measure directly. In this recent article published in Nature Materials, Viarbitskaya et al. present a clever technique, based on two-photon luminescence, to experimentally determine the LDOS.