Optical amplification is the answer for making light travel over sizable distances when it is bound in a plasmonic mode.
Even if research on plasmonics, a relatively new branch of optics, it is a very attractive domain for the scientists since surface plasmons allow confining optical energy to volumes that are significantly smaller
than those accessible with conventional dielectric waveguiding structures such as optical fibers.
The team consisting of researchers from the University of Iceland, from Harvard University, and from the University of Cologne and the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, developed a structure that provides sufficient amplification to provide a net gain of the plasmon-bound light as it travels along the waveguide, thus obtaining the amplification of light.
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