Impact of C60 Adsorption on Surface Plasmon Polaritons on Self-Assembled Ag(111) Islands on Si(111)

The influence of C-60 adsorption on the properties of surface plasmon polaritons on small Ag islands is discussed. Under illumination with UV light as well as under illumination with femtosecond laser pulses, a decrease of the photoemission yield with increasing C-60 coverage is observed. With angular resolved measurements, changes of the band structure during deposition are studied. Based on these experiments, an increase of the work function with increasing coverage is measured. In two photon photoemission, the surface plasmons are imaged as a periodic moir, pattern, the wavelength of which changes because of a modified effective surface dielectric function. Our findings imply that the wavelength of the plasmon wave becomes shorter as a result. Finally, a decrease of the intensity of the moir, pattern maxima compared with the intensity of the first maximum with increasing C-60 coverage has been observed. Accordingly, the damping of the plasmon wave becomes stronger.