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Q-Factor Matching for Femtosecond Near-Field Enhancement in Hybrid Metal-Dielectric Metasurfaces

Yaolong Li1,2, Xu Shi2,3, Yuxin Zhang1, Lin Qiao2,4, Hong Yang1,5,6,7, Shufeng Wang1,5,6, Guowei Lyu1,5,6, Yasutaka Matsuo2, Xiaoyong Hu1,5,6,7 et al.

Qihuang Gong1,5,6,7,* and Hiroaki Misawa2,4,8,†

  • 1State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Department of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 2Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
  • 3Institute for Integrated Innovations, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
  • 4Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science, Advanced Research Field, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
  • 5Key Laboratory for Advanced Optoelectronic Integrated Chips of Jiangsu Province, Peking University, Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong, Jiangsu 226010, China
  • 6Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, China
  • 7Hefei National Laboratory, Hefei 230088, China
  • 8Center for Emergent Functional Matter Science, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan

  • *Contact author: qhgong@pku.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: misawa@es.hokudai.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 106902 – Published 2 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zkdb-qhps

Abstract

Near-field enhancement in nanocavities governs the efficiency of nonlinear optical processes and ultrafast light-matter interactions. However, maximizing the cavity quality factor does not necessarily maximize the response under femtosecond excitation. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that hybrid metal-dielectric metasurfaces provide a practical platform for optimizing this trade-off. By coupling a low-Q localized surface plasmon resonance of Au nanodisks to a high-Q dielectric mode of a TiO2 metasurface, we continuously tune the Q factors of the hybrid modes over a broad range while preserving the plasmonic hotspot geometry. Using four-photon photoemission electron microscopy under 100-fs excitation, we map the nonlinear near-field response and correlate it with spectrally extracted Q factors and ultrafast dynamics measured by time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy. The response varies nonmonotonically with Q and reaches a maximum at Q≈20, where the photoemission yield is enhanced approximately 15-fold relative to the uncoupled metasurface. These results identify pulse-cavity Q-factor matching between the cavity and the driving pulse as a key design principle for pulsed-laser nanophotonics.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 106902– Published 2 September, 2026
  • Received 17 May 2026
  • Revised 9 July 2026
  • Accepted 20 July 2026
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