Optical Near Fields

This book outlines physically intuitive concepts and theories for students, engineers, and scientists who will be engaged in research in nanophotonics and atom photonics. The main topic is the optical near ?eld, i.e., the thin ?lm of light that is localized on the surface of a nanometric material. In the early 1980s, one of the authors (M. Ohtsu) started his pioneering research on optical near ?elds because he judged that nanometer-sized light would be required to shift the paradigm of optical science and technology. This ?eld of research did not exist previously, and was not compatible with trends in opticalscienceandtechnology.However,hewasencouragedbytheknowledge that scientists in other countries started similar research in the mid 1980s. In the 1990s, optical technology progressed very rapidly and the p- tonics industry developed, but further progress became di?cult due to the fundamental limit of light known as the di?raction limit. However, there was a growing awareness among scientists and engineers that this limit can be overcome using optical near ?elds. Since a drastic paradigm shift in the c- cepts of optics is required to understand the intrinsic nature of optical near ?elds, the demand for a textbook on this subject has increased. The present book aims to meet this demand.