Abstract

Time evolution of a surface plasmon guided by a metal surface owing to rapid ionization in a thin semiconductor film placed on the metal surface is theoretically investigated. When the plasma frequency of the created plasma in the film is close to the frequency of the initial surface plasmon, plasma oscillations in the film are resonantly excited by the surface plasmon, and the energy of the initial surface plasmon starts to move back and forth between these oscillations and the surface plasmon. Initially fast surface plasmons also produce significant transient radiation that propagates from the metal surface into vacuum. The general picture of transient processes that occur after ionization can be applied for ultrafast transient spectroscopy of an electron–hole plasma in metal and semiconductor films.

© 2001 Optical Society of America

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