Abstract
Coupling of electromagnetic energy from macroscale external light sources to nanometer-scale volumes associated with plasmonic and dielectric nanoantennas is utilized for excitation of Raman scattering on nanoparticles, excitation of semiconductor quantum dots, and resonant optical absorption. These phenomena are used in the context of detection of biomolecules for applications that include disease diagnostics from single-droplet test samples derived from bodily fluids.