Photonics concerns the generation, transport, processing and detection of light. It underlies a large amount of industrial activity, mainly devoted to information technology, telecommunications, environmental monitoring, biomedical science and instrumentation.

The field has received a powerful impetus recently with the introduction of nanoscale concepts. Moreover, organic materials now appear as key components in photonic devices such as light-emitting diodes, integrated lasers, or photovoltaic cells. Organic molecular systems offer unique opportunities in nanophotonics since both top-down and bottom-up strategies can be pursued towards the nanoscale.

This book gathers the proceedings of the NATO advanced research workshop on "Organic Nanophotonics", held in Aix-en-Provence, France, August 25-29, 2002. It constitutes a snapshot of the state of the art in the novel, emerging research area of nanophotonics based on organic molecules and materials.

Inhalt

Introduction. Nanophotonics: an exciting emerging field; P.N. Prasad. AFOSR interests in organic nanophotonics; C. Lee. Optical properties and energy transport in dendrimers; P. Reineker, et al. Single-molecule devices. Photoswitchable molecular receptors and nanostructures on their basis; M.V. Alfimov. Molecules in motion: towards hydrogen bond-assembled molecular machines; D.A. Leigh. Polymeric b-dicarbonyl compounds as structural basis for intelligent systems with multifunctional nature; I. Petkov. Charge transfer in molecular logical devices possessing different molecular bridges; J. Tamuliene, et al. Photonics at surfaces. Tunneling induced fluorescence as a probe of electromagnetic interaction at nanometer proximity; G. Hoffmann, et al. STM-induced light emission: excitation and time-resolved spectroscopy; F. Silly, F. Charra. Differential reflection spectroscopy of ultrathin highly ordered films of PTCDA on Au(111); R. Nitsche, et al. STM-induced photon emission at solid-liquid interface; K. Perronet, F. Charra. Macromolecules. XYZ on a chip: nanoscale fabrication, fluidics and optics directed toward application within biology and medicine; Z. Tang, et al. New organic dendrimers with greatly enhanced multiphoton absorption for photonics applications; C.W. Spangler, et al. Dendritic polymers for optical applications; A. Hult, et al. Magnetic and morphologic characterisation of some substituted ferrites synthesised by a non-conventional method; E. Cristurean, et al. Dendritic polyesters for optical applications; R. Vestberg, et al. Nonlinear optical study of fullerene-doped conjugated systems: new materials for nanophotonics applications; N.V. Kamanina. Transport and optical properties of DNA; E.M. Conwell, D.M. Basko. Dynamics of eosin Y encapsulated in fourth generation functionalised POPAM dendrimer; G. Teobaldi, F. Zerbetto. Protein nanostructure light control for data storage; P. Meyrueis, et al. Highly efficient multiphoton absorption in a new quadrupolar heterocyclic dye; R. Signorini, et al. Self-assembly. Nanoprecise self-assembly of electrooptic and electroluminescent molecular arrays; Q. Huang, et al. Mesoscopic aggregation control of organic fluorophores in dewetted thin films; O. Karthaus, et al. Nonlinear-optical properties of self-assembled molecular J-aggregates of pseudoisocyanine in nanometer films; R.V. Markov, et al. Confined photons and excitons. Cavity polaritons in organic material films; V.M. Agranovich, et al. Photoinduced light assisted patterning of azopolymer films: towards a new process for nanostructuration; C. Hubert, et al. Mapping the dipolar radiation of copper nanoparticles using a photosensitive film; P.A. Chollet, et al. Collision-induced light-scattering by SF6 isotropic and anisotropic spectra ; K. Nowicka, et al. Subwavelength photonics. Sub-microscopic probing of intrinsic and extrinsic enhancement of second-harmonic generation of nanostructured Gold surfaces; S. Brasselet, et al. Structural and dynamic studies of the polar orientation induced by corona poling and all-optical poling in cross-linkable polymer thin films; A. Apostoluk, et al. Characterization of nonlinear optical parameters of metal-doped polyvinylpirrolidone nanostructures and organic dye molecules; R.A. Ganeev, et al. Novel heterocycle-based tow-photon absorbing dyes; A. Abbotto, et al. 3D characterization of the molecular photo-orientation: application to all-optical poling; N. Nguyen Thi Kim, M.