The temporal response of resonances in nanoplasmonic structures typically
converts an incoming few-cycle field into a much longer near-field at the spot
where non-linear physical phenomena including electron emission, recollision
and high-harmonic generation can take place. We show that for practically
useful structures pulse shaping of the incoming pulse can be used to synthesize
the plasmon-enhanced field and enable single-cycle driven nonlinear physical
phenomena. Our method is demonstrated for the generation of an isolated
attosecond pulse by plasmon-enhanced high harmonic generation. We furthermore
show that optimal control techniques can be used even if the response of the
plasmonic structure is not known a priori.Comment: 6 page