Experimental evaluation of reflectance of surface plasmon polaritons at metal step barrier

We have proposed a way to evaluate the reflectance of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) at a Ag step barrier from an experiment using the attenuated total reflection structure consisting of ultra-thin metal films sandwiched by dielectrics with nearly identical refractive index. At a wavelength of 632.8 nm, for a long-range SPP (L-SPP) excited in a Ag film of 5.7 nm in thickness, the reflectance at Ag step barriers of 766 nm in height was evaluated to be 7.9 x 10(-2). (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.