A spaser is the nanoplasmonic counterpart of a laser, but it (ideally) does not emit photons. It is analogous to the conventional laser, but in a spaser photons are replaced by surface plasmons and the resonant cavity is replaced by a nanoparticle, which supports the plasmonic modes. Similarly to a laser, the energy source for the spasing mechanism is an active (gain) medium that is excited externally. This excitation field may be optical and unrelated to the spaser’s operating frequency; for instance, a spaser can operate in the near- infrared but the excitation of the gain medium can be achieved using an ultraviolet pulse. The reason that surface plasmons in a spaser can work analogously to photons in a laser is that their relevant physical properties are the same. First, surface plasmons are bosons : they are vector excitations and have spin 1, just as photons do. Second, surface plasmons are electrically neutral excitations. And third, surface plasmons are the most collective material oscillations known in nature, which implies they are the most harmonic (that is, they interact very weakly with one another). As such, surface plasmons can undergo stimulated emission, accumulating in a single mode in large numbers, which is the physical foundation of both the laser and the spaser.