Experimental Mechanics at the Nanometric Level

Abstract

Recent advances in the science and technology have originated the need of developing new tools to make observations at the molecular level. Nano-sciences and technology provide a great challenge to experimental mechanicians and at the same time extend the horizons of the discipline to new grounds and novel problems. Of the different disciplines that are required to meet the challenges presented by nano-sciences and technology, optics is a tool that seems particularly adapted for this task. However, classical optics puts a limit to the possibility of making measurements beyond half of the wavelength of light: that is, a couple of hundreds of nanometers at best. However, this quantity is not good enough to perform studies in the nanometric range.