電子エネルギー損失スペクトル（EELS）の低エネルギー損失領域には、価電子励起によるスペクトルが観察されます。金属ナノ粒子やナノワイヤーなどでは表面の価電子の集団的励起である表面プラズモン共鳴が直接測定でき、励起の角度分散や2次元空間分布を可視化することができます。 STEM法と組み合わせることで、高い空間分解能での表面励起の研究を行っています。

"Optical guided modes coupled with Cerenkov radiation excited in Si slab using angular-resolved electron energy-loss spectrum", H. Saito, C. H. Chen and H. Kurata; J. Appl. Phys., 113, 113509-1-7 (2013).
"Direct measurement of dispersion relation for surface plasmon-polaritons on silver nanoantennas", Hikaru Saito and Hiroki Kurata; Microscopy ,doi: 10.1093/jmicro/dft048
"Dispersion relations for coupled surface plasmon-polariton modes excited in multilayer structures", Hikaru Saito, Kyoko Namura, Motofumi Suzuki and Hiroki Kurata; Microscopy , 63, 85-93 (2014).
"Formation of a hybrid plasmonic waveguide mode probed by dispersion measurement", Hikaru Saito and Hiroki Kurata; J. Appl. Phys., 117,133107 (7 pages) (2015).
"Studying substrate effects on localized surface plasmons in an individual silver nanoparticle using electron energy-loss spectroscopy", Yoshifumi Fujiyoshi, Takashi Nemoto and Hiroki Kurata; Ultramicroscopy, 175,116-120 (2017).
"Surface plasmon resonances in a branched silver nanorod", Yoshifumi Fujiyoshi and Hiroki Kurata, J. Appl. Phys., 124, 093103 (2018).
"Characterization of Nonradiative Bloch Modes in a Plasmonic Triangular Lattice by Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy", Daichi Yoshimoto, Hikaru Saito, Satoshi Hata, Yoshifumi Fujiyoshi, and Hiroki Kurata, ACS Photonics, 5, 4476−4483 (2018).