Barnes William L, Dereux Alain, Ebbesen Thomas W
School of Physics, University of Exeter, EX4 4QL, UK.
Nature. 2003 Aug 14;424(6950):824-30. doi: 10.1038/nature01937.
Surface plasmons are waves that propagate along the surface of a conductor. By altering the structure of a metal's surface, the properties of surface plasmons--in particular their interaction with light--can be tailored, which offers the potential for developing new types of photonic device. This could lead to miniaturized photonic circuits with length scales that are much smaller than those currently achieved. Surface plasmons are being explored for their potential in subwavelength optics, data storage, light generation, microscopy and bio-photonics.
表面等离子体激元是沿导体表面传播的波。通过改变金属表面的结构，可以调整表面等离子体激元的特性，特别是它们与光的相互作用，这为开发新型光子器件提供了潜力。这可能会导致长度尺度比目前实现的小得多的小型化光子电路。人们正在探索表面等离子体激元在亚波长光学、数据存储、光产生、显微镜和生物光子学方面的潜力。
