This book describes in detail the physics of localized surface plasmon polaritons excited near fine metallic structures and the principles of near-field optics and microscopy related to this localized field. It covers not only near-field optical microscopy but also wider fields such as local spectroscopy, nanoscale optical processing, quantum near-field optics, and atom manipulation.

Up-to-date overview of near-field optics and surface plasmon polaritons for surface science Current status of applied near-field optics Collection of references for specialists and newcomers Also available online in LINK: http://link.springer.de/series/tap/

Autorentext
Masahiro Irie received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Kyoto University and his Ph.D. degree in radiation chemistry from Osaka University. He started his research on photochemistry at Hokkaido University in 1970 and went on to Osaka University. In 1988 he was appointed to Professor at Kyushu University, where he initiated the study of photochromic diarylethene derivatives. He is currently interested in developing single-crystalline photochromism and single-molecule photochemistry using diarylethene derivatives. 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
Near-Field Optics and the Surface Plasmon Polariton.- Near-Field Microscope Probes Utilizing Surface Plasmon Polaritons.- Apertureless Metallic Probes for Near-Field Microscopy.- Controlling Light Confinement by Excitation of Localized Surface Plasmons.- Spectroscopy of Gap Modes in Metal ParticleSurface Systems.- Near-Field Spectral Analysis of Metallic Beads.- Forces in Optical Near-Fields.- Laser Trapping of a Metallic Probe for Near Field Microscopy.- Surface-Enhanced Infrared Absorption.- Excitation of Surface Plasmon Polaritons by a Focused Laser Beam.