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Plasmon
A plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation.
Explanation
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.
HistoryThe plasmon was initially proposed in 1952 by the american physicist David Bohm. |