Plasma Resonance Absorption in Thin Metal Films

The resonance absorption of the incident light in thin metal films, which is to be considered as an example of the so-called plasma resonance, is studied. This absorption is caused by the mechanism proposed by Ferrell, namely, by the excitation of surface (bounded) plasmons by light and therefore corresponds to an inverse process of the transition radiation. The reflectivity and the transmission coefficient in the case of silver are numerically calculated by using its dielectric constant obtained experimentally by Taft and Philipp and are compared with the experimental results given by Yamaguchi.