title: Ultrafast all-optical coupling of light to surface plasmon polaritons on plain metal surfaces.
abstract: We propose and demonstrate an ultrafast all-optical method to couple light to surface plasmon polaritons on planar gold films. By interfering two 150 fs, 810 nm pulses we excite a transient grating in the temperature of the free electrons of the metal, resulting in a grating in the dielectric function, and leading to a 1 ps launch window for plasmonic excitation. We use pump-probe experiments to identify these ultrashort plasmonic excitations between 520 and 570 nm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A7 Canada. nrotenbe@physics.utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rotenberg
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Betz
authors.forename: Henry M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: van Driel