Blog post: swansont: Look, Ma! No Diffraction!

The cosine-Gauss plasmon beam, caused by quasiparticles called surface plasmons, remains very narrow and controlled along an unprecedented distance, said a Harvard University-led American and French team. The surface plasmons travel in tight confinement with a nanostructured metal surface. The metallic stripes that carry these plasmons have the potential to replace standard copper electrical interconnects in microprocessors, enabling ultrafast on-chip communications.