Cryogenic Near-Field Optical Microscope Images Dynamics of Graphene

As electronic devices and circuits shrink into the nanoscale, the ability to transfer data on a chip at low power with little energy loss is becoming a critical challenge. Over the past decade, squeezing light into tiny devices and circuits has been a major goal of nanophotonics researchers. Electronic oscillations at the surface of metals, known as surface plasmon polaritons or plasmons, have become an intense area of focus. Plasmons are hybrids of light (photons) and electrons in a metal. If this nanolight can be harnessed, researchers can improve sensing, subwave-length waveguiding, and optical transmission of signals.