A new optical near-field microscope with a lateral resolution of 3 nm (λ/200) is presented. Resonantly excited extended surface plasmons generate an optical near field which is locally probed by a sharp tip. The interaction of the surface plasmons with the tip can be understood in terms of elastic plasmon scattering and radiationless energy transfer from the tip to the sample. The new technique may permit the detection and spectrscopic identification of single adsorbed molecules.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a rapidly developing technique for chemical materials analysis. LIBS is applied for fundamental investigations, e.g., the laser plasma matter interaction, for element, molecule, and isotope analysis, and for various technical applications, e.g., minimal destructive materials inspection, the monitoring of production processes, and remote analysis of materials in hostile environment. In this review, we focus on the element analysis of industrial materials and the in-line chemical sensing in industrial production. After a brief introduction we discuss the optical emission of chemical elements in laser-induced plasma and the capability of LIBS for multi-element detection. An overview of the various classes of industrial materials analyzed by LIBS is given. This includes so-called Technology materials that are essential for the functionality of modern high-tech devices (smartphones, computers, cars, etc.). The LIBS technique enables unique applications for rapid element analysis under harsh conditions where other techniques are not available. We present several examples of LIBS-based sensors that are applied in-line and at-line of industrial production processes.

Electronic stopping of slow protons in ZnO, ${\mathrm{VO}}_2$ (metal and semiconductor phases), ${\mathrm{HfO}}_2$, and ${\mathrm{Ta}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_5$ was investigated experimentally. As a comparison of the resulting stopping cross sections (SCS) to data for ${\mathrm{Al}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$ and ${\mathrm{SiO}}_2$ reveals, electronic stopping of slow protons does not correlate with electronic properties of the specific material such as band gap energies. Instead, the oxygen $2p$ states are decisive, as corroborated by density functional theory calculations of the electronic densities of states. Hence, at low ion velocities the SCS of an oxide primarily scales with its oxygen density.