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Glite Dictionary
polariton

polariton

1 9.9
A particle that appears when light mixes with tiny vibrations in a material
  • noun
  • /ˈpɒləˌrɪtən/
  • Specialized
: polariton
  • A different kind of laser is the so-called polariton laser.
  • polariton laser
  • plasmon polaritons
  • called polariton

Examples

  • An important advantage of polariton lasers is that they have a much lower lasing threshold, which makes them excellent candidates for many applications.

  • NASA has patented a process involving Widom-Larsen surface plasmon polaritons, and says it could very well lead to real and revolutionary applications, which leads me to believe that at least one of the many enterprises working on it, including Rossi, has stumbled on a real way of applying LENR.

    Blog text (2)

  • And so the scientists call this spin wave-light combination a polariton.

Surface Forms

polariton singular
polariton plural

Morphology

polariton = polar (opaque) = polar + iton

Although formed from 'polar' plus a particle-forming element, the technical meaning as a specific quasiparticle (photon–exciton coupling) is specialized and not inferable by average learners.

Etymology

Polariton combines polar, which means 'having two opposite sides or a direction' (think North and South poles), and the particle ending -on, as in photon and electron, which marks small particles. So a polariton is like a 'particle' that appears when light such as a photon strongly joins with movements inside a material, which is why it acts like both light and matter.