Nonlinear and quantum optics in the presence of plasmonic effects

光一直是我们研究自然和交流信息的最重要的工具之一。光通信和人类一样古老，显微镜被用来探索活的有机体已经有几个世纪了。然而，人们很快发现，传统的显微镜无法分辨小于光波长的结构--大约是千分之一毫米。在过去的三十年里，通过激光、光纤和光学材料的新设计的发明，这两个领域都取得了显著的进步。现在可以观察到比光的波长小得多的结构，新材料使光学开关成为可能：一束光的路径可以通过打开另一束光脉冲来改变。这种现象已经被研究过，例如用于全光计算机的设计。

Light has always been one of our most important tools to study nature and to communicate information. Optical communication is as old as mankind, and microscopes have been used for centuries to explore living organisms. However, it quickly became clear that conventional microscopes cannot resolve structures which are smaller than the wavelength of light - roughly one thousandth of a millimetre. The last three decades have seen remarkable progress in both fields through the invention of the laser, optical fibres, and new designs of optical materials. It is now possible to observe structures that are much smaller than the wavelength of light, and novel materials make optical switching possible: the path of one flash of light can be changed by switching on another light pulse. This phenomenon has been studied, e.g., for the design of an all-optical computer.