Nanophotonics: an exciting emerging field.- AFOSR interests in organic nanophotonics.- Optical properties and energy transport in dendrimers.- Single-molecule devices.- Photoswitchable molecular receptors and nanostructures on their basis.- Molecules in motion: towards hydrogen bond - assembled molecular machines.- Polymeric ?-dicarbonyl compounds as structural basis for intelligent systems with multifunctional nature.- Charge transfer in molecular logical device possessing different molecular bridges.- Photonics at surfaces.- Tunneling induced fluorescence as a probe of electromagnetic interaction at nanometer proximity.- STM-induced light emission: excitation and time-resolved spectroscopy.- Differential reflection spectroscopy of ultrathin highly ordered films of PTCDA on Au(111).- STM-induced photoemission at solid-liquid interface.- Macromolecules.- XYZ on a chip: nanoscale fabrication, fluidics and optics directed toward applications within biology and medicine.- New organic dendrimers with greatly enhanced multiphoton absorption for photonics applications.- Dentritic polymers for optical applications.- Magnetic and morphologic characterisation of some substituted ferrites synthesised by a non-conventional method.- Dentritic polyesters for optical applications.- Nonlinear optical study of fullerene-doped conjugated systems: new materials for nanophotonics applications.- Transport and optical properties of DNA.- Dynamics of eosin Y encapsulated in a fourth generation functionalised POPAM dendrimer.- Protein nanostructures light control for data storage.- Highly efficient multiphoton absorption in a new quadrupolar heterocyclic dye.- Self-assembly.- Nanoprecise self-assembly of electro-optic and electroluminescent molecular arrays.- Mesoscopic aggregation controlof organic fluorophores in dewetted thin films.- Nonlinear-optical properties of self-assembled molecular J-aggregates of pseudoisocyanine in nanometer films.- Confined photons and excitons.- Cavity polaritons in organic materials.- Photoinduced light assisted patterning of azopolymer films: towards a new process for nanostructuration.- Mapping the dipolar radiation of copper nanoparticles using a photosensitive film.- Collision induced light scattering by SF6 isotropic and anisotropic spectra.- Subwavelength photonics.- Sub-microscopic probing of intrinsic and extrinsic enhancement of second harmonic generation of nanostructured Gold surfaces.- Structural and dynamic studies of the polar orientation induced by corona poling and all-optical poling in crosslinkable polymer thin films.- Characterization of nonlinear optical parameters of metal-doped polyvinylpyrrolidone nanostructures and organic dye molecules.- Novel heterocycle-based two-photon absorbing dyes.- 3D characterization of the molecular photo-orientation: application to all-optical poling.- Control of light emission properties of electroluminescent diodes by surface patterning.- Single-molecule photophysics.- Photon statistics of a single photon source.- Single molecule optically controlled current switch: beyond the electrostatic approach.- Photochromic and photoreactive molecules.- Fluorescent photochromic diarylethene oligomers.- The search for highly polar betainic type molecules for electro-optical applications.- Intermolecular charge transfer multilayers for NLO applications.- Novel monomeric amorphous material for second-order NLO: the low-molecular-weight organic glasses.- Photonic crystals.- Functional polymeric photonic crystals for infra-red bands by guided colloidal assembly techniques.

Photonics concerns the generation, transport, processing and detection of light. It underlies a large amount of industrial activity, mainly devoted to information technology, telecommunications, environmental monitoring, biomedical science and instrumentation.

The field has received a powerful impetus recently with the introduction of nanoscale concepts. Moreover, organic materials now appear as key components in photonic devices such as light-emitting diodes, integrated lasers, or photovoltaic cells. Organic molecular systems offer unique opportunities in nanophotonics since both top-down and bottom-up strategies can be pursued towards the nanoscale.

This book gathers the proceedings of the NATO advanced research workshop on "Organic Nanophotonics", held in Aix-en-Provence, France, August 25-29, 2002. It constitutes a snapshot of the state of the art in the novel, emerging research area of nanophotonics based on organic molecules and materials.