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arXiv · 2603.02362

Electric Field Resolved Image Formation in a Widefield Optical Microscope

Arjun Ashoka·Juhwan Lim·Akshay Rao·Dmitry A. Zimin
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Abstract

Visualizing the spatiotemporal evolution of the electric field of light is fundamental to optics, from designing photonic devices to developing next-generation microscopes. However, we lack the experimental tools to directly access the electric field of light in the sample plane of an optical microscope. Here, we introduce an all-optical imaging modality that resolves the electric field of light in the plane of a traditional widefield transmission optical microscope with 100-attosecond temporal and 200-nanometer spatial resolution. With this we demonstrate the delayed buildup of scattering contrast and pulse broadening through and around a thick MoTe2 flake - dynamics inaccessible via standard simulations. We showcase our technique's versatility by additionally resolving the full in-plane vector electric field lines during photoexcitation as the optical pulse propagates through and around the MoTe2 flake.

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Arjun Ashoka, Juhwan Lim, Akshay Rao, Dmitry A. Zimin. 2026-03-02. Electric Field Resolved Image Formation in a Widefield Optical Microscope. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02362

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