Domestication of Light by Spectroscopy/Nanotechnology tandem: a way to know more about the world around us

Abstract

2015 is the international year of Light. The interaction of light with the matter produces a great deal of effects and phenomena that have been employed to get information about our environment. The use of lasers in combination with spectroscopy techniques affords a useful tool to observe the nature in a more accurate way. But we can go further. The combination of spectroscopy and nanotechnology gives rise to a powerful tandem that can be applied to improve the information arriving from our world in terms of both sensitivity and selectivity. Applications of the resulting techniques in biomedicine, environment and Cultural Heritage will be discussed.