Ultrafast coherent plasmon dynamics of individual metal nanostructures

PHYS 445

Alexandria Kappus, alex63@u.washington.edu, C. C. Neacsu, neacsu@u.washington.edu, and M. B. Raschke, raschke@chem.washington.edu. Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, 36 Bagley Hall, Seattle, WA 98195
The coherent electron dynamics in metal nanostructures, with a temporal response as short as just several femtoseconds, controls local field enhancement as well as excitation and quenching of coupled molecular excitations. To avoid the heterogeneous broadening of ensemble measurements it is desirable to perform corresponding studies on the single particle level. Here, we demonstrate the resonant and off-resonant coherent dynamics of the plasmon response of individual, clean and adsorbate covered gold nanotips. We use second-harmonic interferometric autocorrelation with sub-10 fs excitation. The femtosecond temporal response of the plasmon polariton is found to be sensitive with respect to the structural parameters of the tips in terms of apex radius and cone angle and can be described by quasi-static model calculations.
 

PHYS Poster Session - Nanostructured Materials and Nanophotonics
7:30 PM-10:00 PM, Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Hall A, Poster

Sci-Mix
8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Monday, April 7, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Hall A, Sci-Mix

Division of Physical Chemistry

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008