Mesure de l'electroreflectance des metaux au moyen de structures metal-isolant-metal (Ag-Al2O3-Au)

Modulation of the voltage applied to a metal-insulator-metal structure induces a modulation of the reflectance, which has been measured with a lock-in amplifier. The spectrum of electroreflectance contains structures which are characteristic of both Ag-Al₂O₃ and Au-Al₂O₃ interfaces.     

Explication des anomalies observees dans une etude quantitative du rendement photoelectrique de l'argent par la non-localite de la reponse dielectrique

Discrepancies had been obtained for p polarization in the quantitative analysis of the photoemission yield of silver. They had been accounted in a semi-phenomenological way by introducing a “surface term”. It is shown here, that a non-local theory of the dielectric response introduces a term which is of the same form as the “surface term”. Therefore, the analysis of photoemission yields is an experimental test to prove the non-local character of the dielectric response.     

Plasmon resonance in sputtered gold films observed in scanning tunneling microscopy

Gold films grown on BaTiO₃ substrates, illuminated by a monochromatic beam in the visible range, were investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Irregular variations in the tip displacements versus photon energy are observed at energies of the surface plasmon resonances (2.0 ± 0.1 and 2.7 ± 0.1 eV) of the rough gold film.     

Optimized factor of merit of the magneto-optical Kerr effect of ferromagnetic thin films

This paper deals with the optimization of the factor of merit of the magneto-optical Kerr effect of a resonant multilayer cavity including a ferromagnetic film. This optimization is of interest in the context of optical storage technology. Using numerical simulations based on the Green's dyadic technique, we discuss a route to obtain magneto-optical multilayers with a vanishing ellipticity and factors of merit (with respect to the bulk magnetic material) larger than 3 on a broad range of wavelengths, significantly higher than the actual state of the art. Received 21 May 1999