Previous measurements of the optical absorption of discontinuous silver films have resolved two resonance peaks, one of which occurs only when 'p'-polarized light at high angles of incidence is used.This paper describes optical absorption measurements on discontinuous gold films having a variety of structures: in no case was the second resonance peak observed. However, calculations based on an ellipsoidal particle model taking into account the absorption characteristics of bulk gold suggest that, for gold films, only one peak would be resolvable. The wavelength of this absorption peak was correlated with a structure factor for the film which was then used to compare the predictions of particle shapes by the theories of Doremus, David, Yamaguchi and Polder and Van Santan.t Now at RAE Farnborough.

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