title: Photoacoustic study of surface plasmons in metals.
abstract: A photoacoustic technique was used to observe the nonradiative decay of surface plasmons in evaporated thin films of silver. The signal amplitudes from an attenuated total reflection photon-plasmon coupler were measured as a function of the angle of incidence and the chopping frequency of p-polarized 1.96-eV photons. A 1-D analysis was made on the photoacoustic data in conjunction with simultaneously measured absorptance data. Such an analysis allowed us to separate the nonradiative and the roughness-assisted radiative relaxations of the plasmons and determine their relative probabilities.
authors.affiliation: Osaka Kyoiku University, Physics Department, Tennoji, Osaka 543, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inagaki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kagami
authors.forename: E T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Arakawa