Excitation and detection of surface-plasmon polariton waves on Cu(111) with gratings of rare gas monolayers.

ABSTRACT

We excited surface-plasmon polariton waves (SPPWs) on Cu(111) by coupling optical beams with adsorbed xenon gratings. The SPPWs's excitation causes a resonancelike dip in the angle-resolved reflectivity difference measurement. From the resonance we determined optical constants epsilonCu(633 nm)=-9.53+i0.142 and epsilonCu(780 nm)=-13.44+i0.18. The grating-coupled SPPWs can be used to study mass transport on thin films.