Deep-ultraviolet light excites surface plasmon for the enhancement of photoelectron emission

Abstract

We show deep ultraviolet (DUV) light excitation of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) (DUV-SPR) with aluminum (Al) film. DUV-SPR has higher energy than that of visible light opens many applications, such as enhancement of photoelectron emission from metal surface, autofluorescence imaging of biological specimens, and laser ablation with high energy photons. We demonstrated the enhancement of photoelectron emission by DUV-SPR and analyzed protection layer to avoid oxidation of aluminum surface with enhancement of electric field kept as much as possible. The photoelectron emission from the aluminum surface was enhanced nine times with the excitation of SPR.