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Nature 453, 297-298 (15 May 2008) | doi:10.1038/453297a; Published online 14 May 2008

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Solid-state physics: Polaritronics in view

Benoît Deveaud-Plédran1

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Polaritons are an odd cross-breed of a particle, half-matter, half-light. They could offer an abundant crop of new and improved optoelectronic devices — a promise already being fulfilled.

When I first encountered the idea of a polariton, while reading the doctoral work of John Hopfield1, its beauty stunned me. These mixed 'quasiparticles' are produced in semiconductor materials when the pairing of an electron and its phantom, a hole (this combination in itself a quasiparticle known as an exciton), couples with the photons of a light field.

  1. Benoît Deveaud-Plédran is in the Laboratory of Quantum Optoelectronics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 3, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
    Email: benoit.deveaud-pledran@epfl.ch

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