Rapid developments in nanotechnology require the creation of tools for spectroscopic measurements at the nanometer scale. Much of nanotechnology is driven by quantum confinement effects that modify bulk properties when the length scale of a nanostructure becomes comparable to wave function spatial extents in the material. To understand the modification of optical and electronic properties requires spectroscopic tools that can make measurements at the resolution of a single nano-structure, typically 1-10 nm. This is far below the wavelength limit of probes using visual light, so many conventional probes must be modified to use near-field approaches or re-invented altogether. The purpose of this workshop is to exchange ideas amongst researchers in the field, with the intention of developing tools that will match the fabrication capabilities now emerging in nano-technology. %%% Materials fabrication at very small size structures results in interesting new properties. Often, properties of a material are modified in useful ways when the particle sizes become so small that only a few hundred or a few thousand atoms are present in a single particle. In that limit, materials properties are an amalgam of those of the bulk material and those of single atom. This gives an opportunity to modify materials properties without fabrication of "new" materials; instead the modification takes place simply by changing the particle size of existing materials. One important challenge is to create measurement techniques that can study material properties that originate from only a single grain of these "nano-structured" materials. This requires changing conventional measurement tools so that the spot size for the measurement is at least one hundred times smaller than in current practice. The purpose of this workshop is to exchange ideas within the research community that is developing such tools.
