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Published online 7 October 2009 | Nature 461, 720-722 (2009) | doi:10.1038/461720a
News Feature
Plasmonics: Surfing the wave
Small oscillations of surface electrons that manipulate light on the nanoscale could be the route to applications as disparate as faster computer chips and cures for cancer. Joerg Heber reports.
Toss a rock into a quiet pond, and watch the ripples spread out across its surface. This is pretty much what happens when a photon hits the surface of a metal — except that in this case, the 'ripples' consist of electrons oscillating en masse and have wavelengths measured in nanometres.
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