Abstract

Reduction of the size of a material to a nanometric scale leads to drastic modifications of its properties that evolve from that of a solid to that of a few atom cluster. Of particular interest in metallic systems is the alteration of the conduction electron scattering processes that play a central role in their specific properties and whose study is thus not only of fundamental but also of technological interest. Time resolved femtosecond techniques are powerful tools for such investigation in metallic systems. We have used a two-color femtosecond absorption saturation technique to study the impact of the confinement on electron-electron and electron-phonon scattering in metal nanoparticles.

© 2000 IEEE