edited by Xing Zhu (Peking University) & Motoichi Ohtsu (Tokyo Institute of Technology)

Near-field optics, dealing with the interaction between optical field and matter in the nanometric region, has become an interdisciplinary field spaning physics, chemistry, materials science, electrical engineering and high density data storage. This book reflects the recent status of this rapidly growing field. It discusses the basic theories, instrumentation, novel probes, theoretical simulations, and the application of near-field optics to the fields of condensed matter physics, new materials, information storage, atom photonics, etc. It provides an overview of the research on near-field optics in the 1990s.

• Near Field Optics Seen as an Antenna Problem (D W Pohl)
• Near Field Vibration Spectroscopy to Observe Molecular Images (S Kawata)
• DNA Single Molecule Imaging and Fluorescence Detection Using SNO/AM (J Wang et al.)
• A Measurement of LSF of PSTM Imaging with the Image of Step Spread (S-F Wu et al.)
• Numerical Simulation of Fiber Probe Patterns of SNOM Using FDTD Method (K Liu et al.)
• Analysis of Piezoelectric Quartz Fork Glued with Optical Fiber Probe in Near Field (T-H Zhang et al.)
• A SNOM Working at LN Temperature (X Zhu et al.)
• SNOM Investigation of a High Density Optical Disc After Recording (Q-Y Chen et al.)
• The Gallery Modes in Two-Dimensionally Ordered Dielectric Spheres Excited by Evanescent Fields (M Haraguchi et al.)
• Simulation of 3D Near-Field Optics by Volume Integral Equation (K Tanaka et al.)
• and other papers