Observation of surface plasmons by transition radiation from smooth aluminium films

Abstract
We report the first observation of a strong resonance due to surface plasmons in the transition radiation emitted by films of aluminium deposited on quartz prisms and bombarded with 20 keV electrons. Measurements of the reflectivity of p-polarized light on the same systems show the characteristic attenuated total reflection dip. The correlation of both results and a theoretical analysis allow an unambiguous identification of the resonance phenomenon