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Letter

Nature Physics 5, 470–474 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nphys1278

Wave|[ndash]|particle duality of single surface plasmon|[nbsp]|polaritons

Roman Kolesov , Bernhard Grotz , Gopalakrishnan Balasubramanian , Rainer J. St|[ouml]|hr , Aur|[eacute]|lien A. L. Nicolet , Philip R. Hemmer , Fedor Jelezko & J|[ouml]|rg Wrachtrup

When light interacts with metal surfaces, it excites electrons, which can form propagating excitation waves called surface plasmon polaritons. These collective electronic excitations can produce strong electric fields localized to subwavelength distance scales, which makes surface plasmon polaritons interesting for several applications.