Hundreds of years ago in the mountains of Japan, there lived a hunter who trapped many foxes. People warned him that foxes were cunning creatures that possessed great magic, but he ignored them. One day, the bossy old fox leader declared they must stop the hunter and that he had the perfect plan. But a young fox with crooked whiskers knew that a simple plan is often best. To prove it, he showed both the hunter and the leader just how cunning a fox can be Whimsical illustrations rendered in pencil, water-color, oil paint, and colored pencil by Ariel Ya-Wen Pang add to the charm of this Japanese tale based on a traditional kyogen. An author's note is included.

This book explores the physical phenomena underlying the optical responses of nanoscale systems and uses this knowledge to explain their behavior, which is very different to what is encountered on the macroscopic scale. In the first three chapters, the authors discuss important aspects of wave optics on surfaces and at small scales, such as the optical interference near surfaces, the physical origin of the index of refraction, and how imaging optical fields can be used to enhance resolution in optical diffraction microscopy. The last two chapters treat a concept on the consequence of the finite size of the focal spot in optical spectroscopy and how the index of refraction can be related to scattering of an ensemble of discrete scatterers. The concepts described here are important to understanding the optical properties of nanoparticles or nanostructured surfaces and are not covered in most fundamental optics courses. This book is designed for researchers and graduate students looking for an introduction to optics at small scales.