Optical measurements of the highly damped surface plasmon of SnTe

The dielectric function of tin telluride is obtained by performing a least squares curve fit of the Drude intraband dielectric function to the attenuated total internal reflection (ATR) spectra of the surface plasmon resonance of holes. The surface plasmon is highly damped (ωτ < 1) and both, the complex frequency-real wavevector and the complex wavevector-real frequency dispersion curves exhibit back-bending. The complex frequency dependent dielectric function is calculated and compared to the real frequency dependent dielectric function and is also utilized to analyze the surface plasmon resonance condition. (author)