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Two-Dimensional Light
Two-dimensional light, or plasmons, can be triggered when light strikes a patterned metallic surface. Plasmons may well serve as a proxy for bridging the divide between photonics (high throughput of data but also at the relatively large circuit dimensions of one micron, or one thousandth of a millimeter) and electronics (relatively low throughput but tiny dimensions of tens of nanometers, or millionths of a millimeter).
One might be able to establish a hybrid discipline, plasmonics, in which light is first converted into plasmons, which then propagate in a metallic surface but with a wavelength smaller than the original light; the plasmons could then be processed with their own two-dimensional optical components (mirrors, waveguides, lenses, etc.), and later plasmons could be turned back into light or into electric signals.
To show how this field is shaping up, here are a few plasmon results from that great international physics bazaar, the March Meeting of the American Physical Society, which took place last week in Baltimore.
www.aip.org...