Photoacoustic observation of nonradiative decay of surface plasmons was made on the plasmons excited at a silver-air interface by the attenuated-total-reflection method. Analysis made in conjunction with simultaneously measured optical absorptance data allowed us to separate the radiative and nonradiative relaxations and determine their relative probabilities.

• Received 29 June 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.24.3644