FWIW. This detail may have relevance to the Mizuno breakthrough (claimed) … or not.
Surface plasmons are a hot topic in physics these days. If surface plasmons are important to the new Mizuno results then the resistance heater which he uses may be an important component, even if it was chosen for low cost. These heaters provide light emission in the IR and visible red spectrum, which is the driving force for plasmon formation. Palladium is optically active for plasmon formation, as is nickel. In particular, there is an known optical anomaly for palladium at the visible red photon emission at 650 nm, which corresponds to the red glow of heater wire in the temperature range around 1,400° F. This would be an expected temperature of thin resistance wire powered at 50 watts for instance. Palladium has perfect absorbance at this particular wavelength but is very sensitive to hydrogen contact which can create an oscillation effect leading to surface plasmons. There has been informed speculation that surface plasmons have a role in hydrogen densification. They are often pictured as a vortex which suggests the way they operate to densify. The “heat color” of resistance wire at 650 nm wavelength is the well-known intense red color that we associate with the old style room heaters and also some quartz IR heaters. Jones
