Birefringence, arising from locally preferred orientation of molecules or functional groups in polymeric and relatedmaterials has been observed in a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) at suboptical spatial resolution. Our observations were successfully correlated to existing structural models of the samples, demonstrating the utility of birefringence observations in NSOM. We present ...

The resonance frequency of an atom in an ensemble is shifted from that for an isolated atom due to the net polarization of the ensemble. This shift, ∆ω L , was first derived by Lorentz [1] and Lorenz [2] independently, thus it is known as the Lorentz–Lorenz shift and is given by where N is the number density and µ is the dipole moment. The corresponding modification to the dielec-tric constant ...

Using standard nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique and a well-fabricated sample, we have succeeded in directly observing local magnetic field generated by a micro-magnet Ni45Fe55 (the thickness of 400-nm) which was sputtered on an Al layer of 20-nm thickness. Improved sensitivity of our NMR technique enabled us to clearly observe Al-NMR signals, which are confirmed to come from Al nuclei...

BACKGROUND Observation is used in research in two ways - structured and unstructured. Which of these methods to choose depends on the research question but will be defined predominantly by the paradigm underlying each study. Positivistic research generally uses structured observation and interpretist/naturalistic paradigms use unstructured observation. This paper is concerned with unstructured ...