This thesis has been assigned by TeliaSonera to Stockholm School of Economics. The purpose of this research has been to give a second opinion regarding the possibilities of m-payments through NFC and the barriers to overcome to make this a reality. Today there is an enormous amount of research done on the technical solutions of NFC but almost none is done on business solutions and models for th...

The primary objective of the Magnetic Field Instrument on the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft is to search for and characterize the magnetic field of the asteroid Eros to better understand the origin and evolution of this planetary body. The instrument consists of a three-axis fluxgate magnetometer with a sensor mounted on the high-gain antenna feed structure of the NEAR spacec...

We demonstrate a scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) with broadband THz illumination. A cantilevered W tip is used in tapping AFM mode. The direct scattering spectrum is obtained and optimized by asynchronous optical sampling (ASOPS), while near-field scattering is observed by using a space-domain delay stage and harmonic demodulation of the detector signal. True nea...

We demonstrate a new method whereby near-field optical microscope resolution can be extended to the nanometer regime. The technique is based on measuring the modulation of the scattered electric field from the end of a sharp silicon tip as it is stabilized and scanned in close proximity to a sample surface. Our initial results demonstrate resolution in the 3 nm range--comparable to what can be ...

In this article we review the use of near-field photonics for trapping, transport and handling of nanomaterials. While the advantages of traditional optical tweezing are well known at the microscale, direct application of these techniques to the handling of nanoscale materials has proven difficult due to unfavourable scaling of the fundamental physics. Recently a number of research groups have ...

Theoretical studies show that surface reconstruction in some crystals involves splitting the surface atomic layer into two-upper and lower-sublayers consisting of atoms with only positive or only negative effective electric charges, respectively. In a macroscopic crystal with an almost infinite surface, the electric field induced by such a surface-dipole is practically totally concentrated betw...

An average human eye can see details down to 0,07 mm in size. The ability to see smaller details of the matter is correlated with the development of the science and the comprehension of the nature. Today's science needs eyes for the nano-world. Examples are easily found in biology and medical sciences. There is a great need to determine shape, size, chemical composition, molecular structure and...

We have detected sub-wavelength spot sizes in the near-field of a metal tip, which is illuminated with terahertz (THz) pulses. The THz near-field is detected by using electro-optic detection in a (100) oriented GaP crystal. Contrary to conventional electro-optic detection, which uses (110) oriented detection crystals, (100) crystals only allow the detection of THz light, polarized perpendicular...

Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging wireless short-range communication technology that is based on existing standards of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) infrastructure. In combination with NFC-capable smartphones it enables intuitive application scenarios for contactless transactions, in particular services for mobile payment and over-theair ticketing. The intention of this ...