Evidence of surface plasmon resonance in ultrafast laser-induced ripples

The sensitivity of grating-coupled Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) on metallic surface has been exploited to investigate the correlation between ripples formation under ultrashort laser exposure and SPPs generation conditions. Systematic examination of coupling of single ultrashort laser pulse on gratings with appropriate periods ranging from 440 nm to 800 nm has been performed. Our approach reveals that a surface plasmon is excited only for an appropriate grating period, the nickel sample exhibits fine ripples pattern, evidencing the plasmonic nature of ripples generation. We propose a systematic investigation supported by a comprehensive study on the obtained modulation of such a coupling efficiency by means of a phenomenological Drude-Lorentz model which captures possible optical properties modification under femtosecond irradiation. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America