Abstract

Different from scanning probe and electron microscopy-related techniques, optics is one of the oldest characterization techniques for materials science, being largely used long before nanoscience could even be imagined. In the age of nano, optics still sustains its kingdom. The advantages of optics for nano-science relate to both experimental and fundamental aspects. Experimentally, the techniques are readily available, relatively simple to perform, possible at room temperature and under ambient pressure, and require relatively simple or no sample preparation. Fundamentally, the optical techniques (normally using infrared and visible wavelengths) are nondestructive and noninvasive because they use the photon, a massless and chargeless particle, as a probe.