SILICON AS A VIRTUAL PLASMONIC MATERIAL: ACQUISITION OF ITS TRANSIENT OPTICAL CONSTANTS AND THE ULTRAFAST SURFACE PLASMON-POLARITON EXCITATION
Danilov P.A., Ionin A.A., Kudryashov S.I., Makarov S.V., Rudenko A.A., Saltuganov P.N., Seleznev L.V., Yurovskich V.I., Zayarny D.A.

Поступила в редакцию: 25 Октября 2014

DOI: 10.7868/S0044451015060038

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Ultrafast intense photoexcitation of a silicon surface is complementarily studied experimentally and theoretically, with its prompt optical dielectric function obtained by means of time-resolved optical reflection microscopy and the underlying electron-hole plasma dynamics modeled numerically, using a quantum kinetic approach. The corresponding transient surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) dispersion curves of the photo-excited material were simulated as a function of the electron-hole plasma density, using the derived optical dielectric function model, and directly mapped at several laser photon energies, measuring spatial periods of the corresponding SPP-mediated surface relief nanogratings. The unusual spectral dynamics of the surface plasmon resonance, initially increasing with the increase in the electron-hole plasma density but damped at high interband absorption losses induced by the high-density electron-hole plasma through instantaneous bandgap renormalization, was envisioned through the multi-color mapping.