Near-field Optical Interactions And Applications

The propagation symmetry of electromagnetic fields is affected by encounters with material systems. The effects of such interactions, for example, modifications of intensity, phase, polarization, angular spectrum, frequency, etc. can be used to obtain information about the material system. However, the propagation of electromagnetic waves imposes a fundamental limit to the length scales over which the material properties can be observed. In the realm of near-field optics, this limitation is overcome only through a secondary interaction that couples the high-spatial-frequency (but non-propagating) field components to propagating waves that can be detected. The available information depends intrinsically on this secondary interaction, which constitutes the topic of this study. Quantitative measurements of material properties can be performed only by controlling the subtle characteristics of these processes. This dissertation discusses situations where the effects of near-field interactions can be (i) neglected in certain passive testing techniques, (ii) exploited for active probing of static or dynamic systems, or (iii) statistically isolated when considering optically inhomogeneous materials. This dissertation presents novel theoretical developments, experimental measurements, and numerical results that elucidate the vectorial aspects of the interaction between light and nano-structured material for use in sensing applications