Book excerpt: A comprehensive review of the state of the art and advances in the field, while also outlining the future potential and development trends of optical imaging and optical metrology, an area of fast growth with numerous applications in nanotechnology and nanophysics. Written by the world's leading experts in the field, it fills the gap in the current literature by bridging the fields of optical imaging and metrology, and is the only up-to-date resource in terms of fundamental knowledge, basic concepts, methodologies, applications, and development trends.