Enhancement of optical effects on rough metal surfaces and photoluminescence from the noble metals

Technical Report · Sun Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6346526

Boyd, G T

Optical second-harmonic (SH) generation was used to study the local-field enhancement due to surface roughness on various materials ranging from the alkalis to a semiconductor. The roughness morphology was standardized by evaporating each material onto the same chemically etched glass slide, having microstructures hundreds to thousands of A in size. With the laser excitation at 1.06 m, the observed SH enhancements for different materials varied from 27 to 1 x 10 T times that of silver. They were in fair agreement with a simple model calculation assuming that the rough surface is composed of a distribution of noninteracting hemispheroids on a plane. Results are used to predict enhancements for surface Raman scattering. Single-photon and multi-photon induced luminescence spectra were obtained from clean samples of silver, copper, and gold with both smooth and rough surfaces. The spectra reveal new features, which are correlated with interband transitions at selected symmetry points in the Brillouin zone. The effects of roughness on the luminescence are largely attributable to localized plasmon resonances in the rough surface protrusions. Results are used to evaluate photoluminescence as a band structure probe for metals.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 6346526
• Report Number(s): LBL-20763; ON: DE86006268
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360104* -- Metals & Alloys-- Physical Properties
360603 -- Materials-- Properties
COPPER
ELEMENTS
GOLD
HARMONICS
LUMINESCENCE
MATERIALS
METALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
OSCILLATIONS
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMONS
QUASI PARTICLES
ROUGHNESS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SEMIMETALS
SILVER
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS