These waves enable confinement of energy beyond the dielectric diffraction limit because their fields are strongest at the interfaces and decay as one moves into the bulk.
Harry Atwater's group investigates the modulation of these waves in field-effect devices. These waves are excited by coupling to a totally internally reflected wave in a prism in the Otto configuration. These waves exhibit a hyperbolic sine or cosine profile in the central layer of IMI structures, where they can propagate for longer distances than usual. Because flat geometries are generally unable to support these waves in the (*) Terahertz range, periodically corrugated structures have been used to "spoof" them instead. These waves enable confinement of energy beyond the dielectric diffraction limit because their fields are strongest at the interfaces and decay as one moves into the bulk. For 10 points, name these propagating waves that exist at the interface between a metal and a dielectric, which arise due to oscillations of the sea of electrons in the metal.
Harry Atwater's group investigates the modulation of these waves in field-effect devices.
surface plasmon polaritons [accept surface plasmon resonance, prompt on plasmon or polariton]