Eur. Phys. J. D 16, 139-144 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170078

Femtosecond surface plasmon resonance dynamics and electron-electron interactions in silver nanoparticles

Laboratoire d'Optique Quantique du CNRS, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France

Corresponding author: ^a vallee@leonardo.polytechnique.fr

Received: 1 December 2000
Published online: 15 September 2001

Abstract

Femtosecond excitation and relaxation of nonequilibrium electrons are investigated in silver clusters using a two color pump-probe technique with resonant excitation of the surface plasmon resonance and off resonant probing. The excitation process is shown to be identical to that in metal films, and permits creation of a strongly athermal single electron excitation in a time scale shorter than the duration of the pulses (25-30 fs), in agreement with the free-electron absorption model. Following the time evolution of the nonequilibrium distribution yields information on the internal energy redistribution dynamics of the conduction electrons and of its modification by confinement in metal clusters.