Femtosecond studies of coherent phonons in metallic nanoparticles embedded in dielectric films

Summary form only given. In recent years, nanoparticles of metals, such as gold, silver, and copper, have attracted much attention because they have electrical and optical properties that are different from those of bulk metals. Electron dynamics and optical nonlinear response of metallic nanoparticles have been studied extensively and suggested that metallic nanoparticles are promising candidates for application in future photonics devices. We report the observation of coherent phonons in gold and silver nanoparticles embedded in TiO/sub 2/ and BaO thin films, respectively, by means of degenerate femtosecond pump-probe transmission experiments with excitation at 647.0 nm.