Using the thin film of light, the optical near field, that is localized on the surface of a nanometric material has removed the diffraction limit as a barrier to imaging on the nano- and atomic scales. A paradigm shift in the concepts of optics and optical technology is required to understand the instrinsic nature of the near fields and how best to exploit them. Professors Ohstu and Kobayashi crafted Optical Near Fields on the basis of their hypothesis that the full potential for utilizing optical near fields can be realized only with novel nanometric processing, functions, and manipulation, i.e., by controlling the intrinsic interaction between nanometer-sized optical near fields and material systems, and further, atoms. The book presents physically intuitive concepts and theories for students, engineers, and scientists engaged in research in nanophotonics and atom photonics.

Summarizes all the concepts, realizations and applications of optical near-field techniques in a comprehensive way

Autorentext
Motoiochi Ohtsu was appointed a Research Associate, an Associate professor, a Professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. From 1986 to 1987, while on leave from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, he joined the Crawford Hill Laboratory, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ. In 2004, he moved to the University of Tokyo as a professor. He has written over 417 papers and received 87 patents. He is the author, co-author, and editor of 55 books, including 22 in English. In 2000, he was appointed as the President of the Tokyo Chapter, LEOS, IEEE. From 2000, He is an executive director of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. His main field of interests is nanophotonics.He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, and a Fellow of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. He is also a Tandem Member of the Science Council of Japan. Awards: 14 prizes from academic institutions, including the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering of Japan in 2007, the Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics in 2009.

Inhalt
1 Deadlocks in Conventional Optical Science and Technology.- 2 Breaking Through the Diffraction Limit by Optical Near Field.- 3 Past and Present of Near-Field Optics.- 4 DipoleDipole Interaction Model of Optical Near Field.- 5 Electrodynamics of Oscillating Electric Dipoles.- 6 Self-Consistent Method Using a Propagator.- 7 Picture of Optical Near Field Based on Electric Charges Induced on the Surface and Polarized Currents.- 8 Picture of Optical Near Field as a Virtual Cloud Around a Nanometric System Surrounded by a Macroscopic System.- 9 Application to Nanophotonics and Atom Photonics.- A Basic Formulae of Electromagnetism.- A.1 Maxwell's Equations and Related Formulae.- A.1.1 Static Electric and Magnetic Fields.- A.1.2 Dynamic Electric and Magnetic Fields.- A.1.3 Electromagnetic Fields Generated by an Electric Dipole.- A.1.4 Power Radiated from an Electric Dipole.- B Refractive Index of a Metal.- C ExcitonPolariton.- D Derivation of Equations in Chapter 8.- D.1 Derivation of (8.1).- D.2 Derivation of (8.2).- D.3 Derivation of (8.3).- D.4 Projection Operator Method and Derivation of (8.5).- D.4.1 Definition of a Projection Operator.- D.4.2 Derivation of an Effective Operator.- D.6 Derivation of (8.9).- D.7 Derivation of (8.12).- Solutions to Problems.- References.