Fifth International Conference NEAR-FIELD OPTICS December 6-10, 1998, Shirahama, Japan

It is my great honor to make a concluding remark of this conference. First of all, I would like to express my thanks to the organizing committee for inviting me to attend such a fascinating conference.

The near-field optics is a rapidly growing and very exciting field of science and technology. I was very much surprised and impressed by the large number of participants and contributed papers. This is the evidence of high activity of the near-field optics. Unfortunately, however, it resulted in having two parallel sessions following the plenary session.

On monday, I attended sessions on theory and on instrumentation. So I regret I have missed papers on condensed materials. On Tuesday and thereafter, I attended partially either one of two parallel sessions. Therefore, I cannot summarize the whole conference, but present a partial review of the subjects of my own interest.

Quite a few papers on the theory on near-field optics were presented in other sessions as well as the session on theory. I believe modeling is a significant and critical concern along with methods of analysis and approximation in theoretical problems of near-field optics.

A variety of subjects were discussed on instrumentation. particular interest was a large number of studies on apertureless NSOM because of its advantage in signal enhancement. Field enhancement, resonance enhancement and some other methods of enhancement were reported and discussed.

Progress on probes was reported on fiber tips, cantilevers, and novel probes of laser-trapped gold bead or a molecule, which allow scanning the near field of a soft sample with the least possible damage.
Fluorescence imaging was demonstrated to be of more use in the study of chemical and biological materials. Single molecule detection was also shown to be a powerful tool for observation and interpretation of molecular processes of biological interest. A few papers on atoms in optical near field were given.

Significant progress in polarization control for improved NSOM and for interpretation of physical processes were reported in a variety of investigations. Surface plasmon effects were intensively studied so that they may be utilized to enhance signals and to study sample materials.

Applications of SNOM to many directions were reported. Near-field observation of modes in resonators and waveguides such as whispering gallery modes in a sphere and coupled spheres was demonstrated. Progress in time-resolved nonlinear spectroscopy allowed observation of molecular dynamics.

Near-field optics is now finding wider applications in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and industrial purposes. Not only information storage and material processing but more are expected in near future. Finally I hope and expect further progress of near-field optics. Thank you for your attention.