  We report on the coupling of an electric quadrupole transition in atom with
plasmonic excitation in a nanostructured metallic metamaterial. The quadrupole
transition at 685 nm in the gas of Cesium atoms is optically pumped, while the
induced ground state population depletion is probed with light tuned on the
strong electric dipole transition at 852 nm. We use selective reflection to
resolve the Doppler-free hyperfine structure of Cesium atoms. We observed a
strong modification of the reflection spectra at the presence of metamaterial
and discuss the role of the spatial variation of the surface plasmon polariton
on the quadrupole coupling.
