Is it possible for signals to propagate as waves, without the electrons moving between atoms? Kind of like in this gif, but without them hopping along?
Sweet, thanks. I see in the "possible applications" section of that wikipedia article it is stated that:
"Plasmons are being considered as a means of transmitting information on computer chips, since plasmons can support much higher frequencies (into the 100 THz range, while conventional wires become very lossy in the tens of GHz). However, for plasmon-based electronics to be useful, a plasmon-based amplifier analogous to the transistor, called a plasmonstor, first needs to be created."
So yeah, to all those applied physicists in the audience, hurry up and unleash the plasmonstor! (does anyone really call it that?)
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmon