Local Polariton States in Polar Crystals with Impurities

We show that an impurity embedded in an ionic crystal can give rise to a novel kind of local states. These states exist within a polariton gap of a material and are a mix of excitations of the crystal, such as phonons or excitons, and the transverse electromagnetic field. The electromagnetic component of the states along with the corresponding excitations of the material are localized in the vicinity of an impurity.