High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Plasmonic metamaterials are negative index metamaterials that exploit surface plasmons, which are produced from the interaction of light with metal-dielectric materials. Under specific conditions, the incident light couples with the surface plasmons to create self-sustaining, propagating electromagnetic waves known as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Once launched, the SPPs ripple along the metal-dielectric interface and do not stray from this narrow path. Compared with the incident light that triggered the transformation, the SPPs can be much shorter in wavelength.