Surface plasmons, excited in thin metal films by means of laser irradiation, can be used as a very sensitive probe to study a wide variety of processes at surfaces and interfaces. We give here an overview over some recent applications. Examples are adsorption and desorption phenomena of physisorbed films, which can be studied with high temporal resolution on a nano-second scale. Another application is the sensitive detection of changes in the optical properties of thin films, e.g. of photo-chromic materials. Furthermore, surface plasmons can be used to monitor pressure variations on short timescales, and are thus suitable, e.g., for investigating and characterizing shock waves impinging onto liquid-solid interfaces. The surface plasmon technique can also be utilized for imaging the lateral structure of a patterned surface with a resolution on the order of a few microns. Surface plasmon spectroscopy is thus a very versatile tool for surface and interface diagnostics.
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