Abstract: Illuminating a solid crystal using an intense and ultrashort laser pulse leads to the “dressing” of its electrons. At high field, this phenomenon sensibly modifies the possible energy levels of the electrons along with their symmetry. In such conditions, insulators usually undergo an ultrafast metallization [1]. While a quantum analysis of this situation describes the excitation of bulk plasmon polaritons, classical considerations rather predict the excitation of surface electromagnetic waves (surface plasmon polaritons) that lead to materials structuring at the scale of the laser wavelength [2]. In this lecture, I will review the mechanisms of polaritons excitation both for bulk and surfaces [3], respectively using quantum and classical points of view of one same physical phenomenon, at the origin of several applications [4-7].
[1] Derrien, T. J.-Y.; Tancogne-Dejean, N.; Zhukov, V.; Appel, H.; Rubio, A. & Bulgakova, N. M.…