Plasmon
Quasiparticle of charge oscillations in condensed matter / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Not to be confused with plasmaron. For the brand of dried milk biscuit, see Plasmon biscuit.
In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. Just as light (an optical oscillation) consists of photons, the plasma oscillation consists of plasmons. The plasmon can be considered as a quasiparticle since it arises from the quantization of plasma oscillations, just like phonons are quantizations of mechanical vibrations. Thus, plasmons are collective (a discrete number) oscillations of the free electron gas density. For example, at optical frequencies, plasmons can couple with a photon to create another quasiparticle called a plasmon polariton.
This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (March 2015) |
The field of study and manipulation of plasmons is called plasmonics.