The temporal reshaping of short optical pulses reflected from a metal
film under the condition of surface-wave excitation of single- and mul
tiple-boundary surface-plasmon modes is theoretically investigated. Re
flected pulse shapes are calculated through evaluation of Fourier tran
sform integrals both by direct numerical integration and by approximat
e pole expansion. The latter is particularly useful for the interpreta
tion of the simple exponential time decay of the trailing edge of the
pulse. Emphasis is placed on determination of the range of parameters
for which pulse reshaping may be experimentally observed. Diffraction
of the incident beam is a limiting factor.