ELECTROOPTIC PROPERTIES OF THIN METALLIC LAYERS

The Pockels electro-optic effect at a surface of a centrosymmetric met al is described and is experimentally demonstrated on Ag surfaces in c onnection with surface plasmon excitation in attenuated total reflecti on measurements. It is shown that it is sufficient to know only the li near-optical properties of the metal in order to predict its electro-o ptic properties. The experimental data seem to be in good agreement wi th the theoretical model even without the introduction of phenomenolog ical fitting parameters into the theory. We predict extremely large el ectro-optic effects near the plasma edge of the metal.