Plasmonic and dielectric nanostructures are two major approaches to light manipulation below the diffraction limit (subwavelength scale). The interactions of light with these two types of nanostructures are known as localized surface plasmon and Mie resonances, respectively, which exhibit different properties from fundamental physics to practical applications.

In this talk, I will focus on the near-field and far-field optical properties of chemically prepared plasmonic and dielectric nanoparticles, as well as their interaction with other nanoscale optical species (ions, molecules, and fluorophores). I will start with a brief introduction to the preparation of plasmonic and dielectric nanoparticles with controllable size, shape, composition, resonant wavelength, chirality, and surface functionalization group. For plasmonic nanostructures, I will introduce our work in high-aspect-ratio silver nanorods and their performance in directional light scattering, fluorescence enhancement, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, surface-enhanced infrared absorption, and bio-applications. For the dielectric nanostructures, I will present our research on single-particle Mie resonances of TiO2/ZrO2 nanospheres and the magnetic Purcell effect. In the end, I will provide a few examples that combine nanoparticles with mechanical engineering.