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Topic · Biomedical Engineering

Near-Field Optical Microscopy

Near-Field Optical Microscopy is a research topic within Biomedical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 16k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the enhancement and applications of photonic nanojets, a phenomenon that allows for subwavelength imaging and manipulation of light at the nanoscale. The research covers topics such as near-field optical microscopy, super-resolution imaging, microsphere-assisted techniques, scanning probe microscopy, and the use of dielectric microspheres for various optical applications.

  • Photonic Nanojets
  • Near-Field Optical Microscopy
  • Super-Resolution Imaging
  • Microsphere-Assisted Techniques
  • Scanning Probe Microscopy
  • Nanoscale Optical Manipulation
  • Dielectric Microspheres
  • Backscattering Enhancement
  • Subwavelength Imaging
  • Nanophotonics
Research works
16k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-15%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
37% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Near-Field Optical Microscopy

Which countries lead Near-Field Optical Microscopy research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (614 and 330 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 614 works
  2. 2 United States 330 works
  3. 3 Germany 124 works
  4. 4 Japan 114 works
  5. 5 Russia 112 works
  6. 6 France 105 works
  7. 7 India 71 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 67 works
  9. 9 South Korea 64 works
  10. 10 Italy 36 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 37.4%United States: 20.2%Germany: 7.6%Japan: 7.0%6 others listed: 27.9%37%largest
China614 · 37.4%United States330 · 20.2%Germany124 · 7.6%Japan114 · 7.0%6 others listed457 · 27.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Near-Field Optical Microscopy research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Near-Field Optical Microscopy research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 57 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 53 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 36 works
  4. 4 Xidian UniversityChina 21 works
  5. 5 Zhejiang UniversityChina 15 works
  6. 6 University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 14 works
  7. 7 The University of OsakaJapan 12 works
  8. 8 Tsinghua UniversityChina 11 works
  9. 9 Shenzhen UniversityChina 11 works
  10. 10 Samara National Research UniversityRussia 11 works

Who are the leading researchers in Near-Field Optical Microscopy?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Near-Field Optical Microscopy include Zhong Lin Wang, George M. Whitesides and Gordon Brent Mills.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  3. 3 Gordon Brent Mills United States 265k citations
  4. 4 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  5. 5 Kenji Watanabe Japan 237k citations
  6. 6 Rodney S. Ruoff United States 231k citations
  7. 7 Takashi Taniguchi Japan 227k citations
  8. 8 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  9. 9 Younan Xia United States 207k citations
  10. 10 Daniel A. Bloch France 190k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Near-Field Optical Microscopy?

The most cited paper in Near-Field Optical Microscopy is "Strong localization of photons in certain disordered dielectric superlattices" (Sajeev John, 1987), with 10,049 citations. Next come "Sub-diffraction-limit imaging by stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM)" (8,412) and "Extraordinary optical transmission through sub-wavelength hole arrays" (7,694).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Strong localization of photons in certain disordered dielectric superlattices Sajeev John · Physical Review Letters Open access 8 Jun 1987 10,049
2 Sub-diffraction-limit imaging by stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) Michael J. Rust, Mark Bates, Xiaowei Zhuang · Nature Methods Open access 9 Aug 2006 8,412
3 Extraordinary optical transmission through sub-wavelength hole arrays Thomas W. Ebbesen, Henri J. Lezec, H. F. Ghaemi et al. · Nature Feb 1998 7,694
4 Breaking the diffraction resolution limit by stimulated emission: stimulated-emission-depletion fluorescence microscopy Stefan W. Hell, Jan Wichmann · Optics Letters Jun 1994 6,210
5 Electromagnetic scattering by surfaces of arbitrary shape S. Rao, Donald R. Wilton, Allen Wilburn Glisson · IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation May 1982 5,413
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Near-Field Optical Microscopy research done?

The largest centres of Near-Field Optical Microscopy research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Shanghai (China) and Nanjing (China).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 103 works
  2. 2 Xi'anChina 53 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 44 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 43 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 38 works
  6. 6 TokyoJapan 36 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 33 works
  8. 8 ParisFrance 32 works
  9. 9 SeoulSouth Korea 29 works
  10. 10 HangzhouChina 27 works
See Near-Field Optical Microscopy on the map

Where is the best place to study Near-Field Optical Microscopy?

Among universities, judged by research, Xidian University, Stanford University and South China Normal University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 13.63%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Stanford UniversityZhejiang UniversitySouth China Normal U…Xidian University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Xidian UniversityChina 65.611.9%16.0×21 +46.0%
2Stanford UniversityUnited States 51.631.0%3.2×8 -9.9%
3South China Normal UniversityChina 48.417.9%14.7×9 +56.1%
4Zhejiang UniversityChina 47.818.1%3.2×15 -24.0%
5University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 42.54.8%7.3×14 +25.1%
6Fudan UniversityChina 42.519.0%3.2×9 +73.2%
7Shenzhen UniversityChina 35.26.2%8.3×11 -31.4%
8University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 34.313.6%3.4×10 -1.2%
9The University of OsakaJapan 33.53.9%10.8×12 -21.1%
10Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 32.59.9%3.4×11 +28.8%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Near-Field Optical Microscopy, country by country

Is Near-Field Optical Microscopy research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 15% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2016.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Near-Field Optical Microscopy as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0078% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Near-Field Optical Microscopy0.0080% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Near-Field Optical Microscopy over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Near-Field Optical Microscopy10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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