Fano resonance in a tapered optical fiber in contact with a high-Q microsphere is demonstrated. Multimode waves propagating in a 2.3μm diameter taper were coupled with a single whispering gallery mode of a 220μm sphere, and their coherent interaction resulted in Fano resonance. The asymmetric line shapes of the transmission spectra changed periodically with scanning of the coupling position along the taper. The observed 24μm period was due to modal dispersion in the tapered fiber.

Selective manipulation and spectroscopy of single nanoparticles are realized by measuring and controlling quantum resonant forces.

An unique random laser exhibiting quasi-single-mode and low lasing threshold is developed by a homogenized submicrometer-sized zinc oxide particle film dispersed with intentionally introduced polymer particles as point defects. Such unique random lasing is dominantly initiated at the defect sites, although multi-mode peaks with a collapsed broad emission spectrum are observed at the defect-free sites as in the conventional random lasers. Thus our proposed simple structure can possibly provide the controllability of lasing properties even in random structures.

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) was measured on periodic and randomly arranged patterns of Au nano-bricks (rectangular parallelepipeds). Resonant SERS conditions were investigated of a near-IR dye deposited on nanoparticles. Random mixtures of Au nano-bricks with different aspect ratio R showed stronger SERS enhancement as compared to periodic patterns with constant aspect ratio (R varies from 1 to 4). SERS mapping revealed up to ∼ 4 times signal increase at the hot-spots. Experimental observation is verified by numerical modeling and is qualitatively consistent with generic scaling arguments of interaction between plasmonic nanoparticles. The effect of randomization on the polarization selectivity for the transverse and longitudinal modes of nano-bricks is shown.

Spatially formed two-photon interference fringes with fringe periods smaller than the diffraction limit are demonstrated. In the experiment, a fringe formed by two-photon NOON states with wavelength λ=702.2 nm is observed using a specially developed near-field scanning optical microscope probe and two-photon detection setup. The observed fringe period of 328.2 nm is well below the diffraction limit (351 nm = λ/2). Another experiment with a path-length difference larger than the coherent length of photons confirms that the observed fringe is due to two-photon interference.