Researchers squeeze light into nanoscale devices and circuits

As electronic devices and circuits shrink into the nanoscale, the ability to transfer data on a chip, at low power with little energy loss, is becoming a critical challenge. Over the past decade, squeezing light into tiny devices and circuits has been a major goal of nanophotonics researchers. Electronic oscillations at the surface of metals, known as surface plasmon polaritons or plasmons for short, have become an intense area of focus. Plasmons are hybrids of light (photons) and electrons in a metal. If researchers can harness this nanolight, they will be able to improve sensing, subwavelength waveguiding, and optical transmission of signals.