Prof. Aaron Lewis, Department of Applied Physics, Hebrew University Date: Dec. 10, 2006 Title: New Horizons in Optical and Chemical Nanocharacterization Abstract: Tools such as atomic force microscopy or electron microscopy have exceptional capabilities for nanocharacterization. Yet, there are many important problems that such tools fail to provide critical answers. An example of one such intractable question is in the area of biophysics. Specifically, an unanswered problem that has implications for a number of areas from nerve transmission to membrane drug interactions is the nature of the complex solution nanoenvironment around a negatively charged cell membrane. This lecture will address such previously intractable questions of considerable import in biology. It will be shown that nano optically based approaches can address such problems with chemical sensitivity. These optical methods also have implications for chemical nanocharacterization in a variety of other areas in science and technology including those with considerable import in semiconductor device physics. A critical problem in this latter area that will be discussed is the chemical characterization of ultra thin films of strained silicon which has recently produced important advances in microelectronic device development. In summary, the goal of this lecture will be to introduce attendees to the advances that optical nanometric methods permit. As a result such methods are being recognized as being critical in the arsenal of the nanotechnologiest for answering with chemical sensitivity important problems that have been generally intractable.