Precisely arranging nanoparticles to develop plasmonic molecules

In the incredibly small world of molecules, the elementary building blocks—the atoms—join together in a very regular pattern. In contrast, in the macroscopic world with its larger particles, there is much greater disorder ...

Brighter fluorescent markers allow for finer imaging

Researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have pioneered a new technique that will enable higher-resolution imaging of very small objects like neurons. The technique, which improves ...

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Plasmon

In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. The plasmon is a quasiparticle resulting from the quantization of plasma oscillations just as photons and phonons are quantizations of light and mechanical vibrations, respectively (though the photon is an elementary particle, not a quasiparticle). Thus, plasmons are collective oscillations of the free electron gas density, for example, at optical frequencies. Plasmons can couple with a photon to create another quasiparticle called a plasma polariton.

Since plasmons are the quantization of classical plasma oscillations, most of their properties can be derived directly from Maxwell's equations.

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