TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF SURFACE PLASMON-POLARITONS ON SILVER

DC resistivities and optical frequency conductivities have both been measured on uhv evaporated polycrystalline thin silver films. Temperature dependencies were studied for a range of film thicknesses, both before and after annealing. The optical constants of the films were obtained by probing the film using the excitation of surface plasmon-polaritons (SPP). While the higher temperature SPP resonance data may be compared favourably to theoretical predictions, this is not true for that recorded at lower temperatures. This is attributed to quantum mechanical effects including phonon-assisted absorption, indicating the need for substantial modification of existing SPP theory. In addition, it appears that the influence of the anomalous skin effect is important even at room temperature. © 1990.