NEAR-FIELD OPTICAL MICROSCOPY IN JERUSALEM

During the past decade the area of near-field optics has seen an expon ential growth. This is a result of the resolution of the technical pro blems that had prevented the potential of this powerful optical method ology from being generally applied. As a result of committed and stead y progress in resolving these technical problems the fundamental princ iples of near-field optics are now generally accepted and the technolo gy is widely used. The potential of these advances has important impli cations in a variety of areas, from chemistry to information storage t o the characterization of structures with potential in fundamental mes oscopic physics, and in the characterization of practical devices in e lectronics and photonics which are rapidly reaching nanometer dimensio nalities. In this paper, the progress that has been made in Jerusalem in developing a near-field microscope fully integrated with convention al far-field, confocal far-field, and all forms of force and other sca nned probe microscopies will be described. The potential of this uniqu e imaging system in chemical applications is also discussed.