  When a sculptured thin film (STF), made of a metal and $\leq50$ nm thick, is
used in lieu of a dense layer of metal in the Kretschmann configuration,
experimental data for an STF comprising parallel tilted nanowires shows that a
surface plasmon resonance (SPR) can still be excited. As the porosity of the
chosen STF increases, experimental data and numerical simulations indicate the
SPR dip with respect to the angle of incidence of the exciting plane wave
widens and eventually disappears, leaving behind a a vestigial peak near the
onset to the total-internal-reflection regime.
