Amateur astronomers interested in learning more about astronomical spectroscopy now have the guide they need. It provides detailed information about how to get started inexpensively with low-resolution spectroscopy, and then how to move on to more advanced high-resolution spectroscopy. Uniquely, the instructions concentrate very much on the practical aspects of using commercially-available spectroscopes, rather than simply explaining how spectroscopes work. The book includes a clear explanation of the laboratory theory behind astronomical spectrographs, and goes on to extensively cover the practical application of astronomical spectroscopy in detail. Four popular and reasonably-priced commercially available diffraction grating spectrographs are used as examples. The first is a low-resolution transmission diffraction grating, the Star Analyser spectrograph. The second is an inexpensive fiber optic coupled bench spectrograph that can be used to learn more about spectroscopy. The third is a newcomer, the ALPY 600 spectrograph. The fourth spectrograph considered is at the other end of the market both in performance and cost, the high-resolution Lhires III. While considerably more expensive, this is a popular and excellent scientific instrument, that allows more advanced amateur astronomers to produce scientifically valuable data. With all of these tools in place, the amateur astronomer is well-prepared to forger deeper into the night sky using spectroscopy.

This book on astronomical measurement takes a fresh approach to teaching the subject. After discussing some general principles, it follows the chain of measurement through atmosphere, imaging, detection, spectroscopy, timing, and hypothesis testing. The various wavelength regimes are covered in each section, emphasising what is the same, and what is different. The author concentrates on the physics of detection and the principles of measurement, aiming to make this logically coherent.
The book is based on a short self contained lecture course for advanced undergraduate students developed and taught by the author over several years.

Methods of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are increasingly applied in engineering sciences. The book summarizes research in the field of chemical and process engineering performed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Fundamentals of the methods are exposed for readers with an engineering background. Applications cover the fields of mechanical process engineering (filtration, solid-liquid separation, powder mixing, rheometry), chemical process engineering (trickle-bed reactor, ceramic sponges), bioprocess engineering (biofilm growth), and food process engineering (microwave heating, emulsions). Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as well as low-field NMR are covered with notes on hardware. Emphasis is placed on quantitative data analysis and image processing.

In this thesis Matthew Simpson reportstwo areas of work in gas ion spectroscopy, each investigation in itself worthy of a PhD.The first study uses tunable vacuum-ultraviolet radiation from a synchrotron to identify negative ions from twenty four photoexcited polyatomic molecules in the gas phase. From these experiments, Matthew collects a vast amount of data and summarises and reviews ion-pair formation from polyatomic molecules. The second study is on selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry. Matthew investigates the reactions of cations and anions with ethene, monofluoroethene, 1,1-difluoroethene and tetrafluoroethene. In this study Matthew tries to explain why certain products are formed preferentially over other products at a microscopic level of understanding. The data recorded in this thesis form the most comprehensive collection of information about anion formation and are the basis of a review and numerous articles in specialist journals."

The high time-resolution radio sky represents unexplored astronomical territory. This thesis presents a study of the transient radio sky, focussing on millisecond scales. As such, the work is concerned primarily with neutron stars. In particular this research concentrates on a recently identified group of neutron stars, known as RRATs, which exhibit radio bursts every few minutes to every few hours. After analysing neutron star birthrates, a re-analysis of the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey is described which has resulted in the discovery of 19 new transient radio sources. Of these, 12 have been seen to repeat and a follow-up campaign of observations has been undertaken. These studies have greatly increased our knowledge of the rotational properties of RRATs and enable us to conclude that they are pulsars with extreme nulling and/or pulse-to-pulse modulation. Although the evolution of neutron stars post-supernova is not yet understood, it seems that RRATs fit into the emerging picture in which pulsar magnetospheres switch between stable configurations.

Dipolar Recoupling, by Niels Chr. Nielsen, Lasse A. Strasso and Anders B. Nielsen.-

Solid-State NMR Techniques for the Structural Determination of Amyloid Fibrils, by Jerry C. C. Chan.-

Solid-State 19F-NMR of Peptides in Native Membranes, by Katja Koch, Sergii Afonin, Marco Ieronimo, Marina Berditsch and Anne S. Ulrich.-

Probing Quadrupolar Nuclei by Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy: Recent Advances, by Christian Fernandez and Marek Pruski.-

Solid State NMR of Porous Materials Zeolites and Related Materials, by Hubert Koller and Mark Weiss.-

Solid-State NMR of Inorganic Semiconductors, by James P. Yesinowski.-"

Density functional theory (DFT) has become the standard workhorse for quantum mechanical simulations as it offers a good compromise between accuracy and computational cost.
However, there are many important systems for which DFT performs very poorly, most notably strongly-correlated materials, resulting in a significant recent growth in interest in 'beyond DFT' methods. The widely used DFT+U technique, in particular, involves the addition of explicit Coulomb repulsion terms to reproduce the physics of spatially-localised electronic subspaces.
The magnitude of these corrective terms, measured by the famous Hubbard U parameter, has received much attention but less so for the projections used to delineate these subspaces.
The dependence on the choice of these projections is studied in detail here and a method to overcome this ambiguity in DFT+U, by self-consistently determining the projections, is introduced.
The author shows how nonorthogonal representations for electronic states may be used to construct these projections and, furthermore, how DFT+U may be implemented with a linearly increasing cost with respect to system size.
The use of nonorthogonal functions in the context of electronic structure calculations is extensively discussed and clarified, with new interpretations and results, and, on this topic, this work may serve as a reference for future workers in the field."

"Electronic Devices for Analog Signal Processing" is intended for engineers and post graduates and considers electronic devices applied to process analog signals in instrument making, automation, measurements, and other branches of technology. They perform various transformations of electrical signals: scaling, integration, logarithming, etc. The need in their deeper study is caused, on the one hand, by the extension of the forms of the input signal and increasing accuracy and performance of such devices, and on the other hand, new devices constantly emerge and are already widely used in practice, but no information about them are written in books on electronics.

The basic approach of presenting the material in "Electronic Devices for Analog Signal Processing"can be formulated as follows: the study with help from self-education. While divided into seven chapters, each chapter contains theoretical material, examples of practical problems, questions and tests. The most difficult questions are marked bya diamondand can be given to advanced readers. Paragraphs marked by/// are very important for the understanding of the studied material and together they can serve a brief summary of a section. The text marked by italic indicates new or non-traditional concepts. Calculated examples are indicated by >.

The main goal of "Electronic Devices for Analog Signal Processing" is not only to give some knowledge on modern electronic devices, but also to inspire readers on the more detailed study of these devices, understanding of their operation, ability to analyze circuits, synthesize new devices, and assess the possibilities of their application for solution of particular practical problems."

The classical phenomenon of light scattering is one of the most studied t- ics in light-matter interaction and, even today, involves some controversial issues. A present focus of interest for many researchers is the possibility of obtaining information about microstructures, for example surface roughness, and the size, shape and optical properties of particles by means of a n- invasive technique such as the illumination of these objects with light. One of their main tasks is to extract the relevant information from a detailed study of the scattered radiation. This includes: measurement of the light intensity in di erent directions, analysis of its polarization, determination of its stat- tics, etc. Contributionstoresolvingthisproblemareimportantnotonlyfrom the point of view of increasing basic knowledge but also in their applications to several elds of industry and technology. Consider, for example, the pos- bility of distinguishing between di erent types of atmospheric contaminants, biological contaminants in our blood, the detection of microdefects in the manufacturing of semiconductors, magnetic discs and optical components, or the development of biological sensors. During the period September 11-13, 1998, we brought together a group of international experts on light scattering at the Summer School of Laredo at the University of Cantabria. In a series of one-hour lectures, they discussed currentaspectsoflightscatteringfrommicrostructureswithspecialemphasis on recent applications. The present book condenses those lectures into ve parts

The field of single charge tunneling comprises of phenomena where the tunneling of a microscopic charge, usually carried by an electron or a Cooper pair, leads to macro scopically observable effects. The first conference entirely devoted to this new field was the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Single Charge Tunneling held in Les Hauches, France, March 5-15, 1991. This book contains a series of tutorial articles based on lectures presented at the meeting. It was intended to provide both an introduction for nonexperts and a valuable reference summarizing the state of the art of single charge tun neling. A complementary publication with contributions by participants of the NATO Advanced Study Institute is the Special Issue on Single Charge Tunneling of Zeitschrift fur Physik B, Vol. 85, pp. 317-468 (1991 ). That issue with original papers provides a snapshot af the leading edge of current research in the field. The success of the meeting and the publicatian of this volume was made possible through the generaus support af the NATO Scientific A: ffairs Division, Brussels, Belgium. The Centre de Physique des Hauches has provided a superbly situated conference site and took care af many lacal arrangements. Both far the preparation of the conference and the handling af some manuscripts the suppart af the Centre d 'Etudes de Saclay was essential. The editing of the proceedings volume would not have been passible without the dedicated efforts of Dr. G. -1. Ingald, who tailared a 1\."

Electron energy loss spectroscopy has become an indispensable tool in surface analysis. Although the basic physics of this technique is well understood, instrument design has previously largely been left to intuition. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive treatment of the electron optics involved in the production of intense monochromatic beams and the detection of scattered electrons. It includes a full three-dimensional analysis of the electron optical properties of electron emission systems, monochromators and lens systems, placing particular emphasis on the procedures for matching the various components. The description is kept mathematically simple and focuses on practical aspects, with many hints for writing computer codes to calculate and optimize electrostatic lens elements.

This book provides tools well suited for the quantitative investigation of semiconductor electron microscopy. These tools allow for the accurate determination of the composition of ternary semiconductor nanostructures with a spatial resolution at near atomic scales. The book focuses on new methods including strain state analysis as well as evaluation of the composition via the lattice fringe analysis (CELFA) technique. The basics of these procedures as well as their advantages, drawbacks and sources of error are all discussed. The techniques are applied to quantum wells and dots in order to give insight into kinetic growth effects such as segregation and migration. In the first part of the book the fundamentals of transmission electron microscopy are provided. These are needed for an understanding of the digital image analysis techniques described in the second part of the book. There the reader will find information on different methods of
composition determination. The third part of the book focuses on applications such as composition determination in InGaAs Stranski--Krastanov quantum dots. Finally it is shown how an improvement in the precision of the composition evaluation can be obtained by combining CELFA with electron holography. This is demonstrated for an AlAs/GaAs superlattice.

This book discusses the scientific mechanism of copper electrodeposition and it's wide range of applications. The book will cover everything from the basic fundamentals to practical applications. In addition, the book will also cover important topics such as: * ULSI wiring material based upon copper nanowiring * Printed circuit boards * Stacked semiconductors * Through Silicon Via * Smooth copper foil for Lithium-Ion battery electrodes. This book is ideal for nanotechnologists, industry professionals, and practitioners.

A detailed study of the science, engineering and applications of terahertz technology, based on room-temperature solid-state devices, which are seen as the key technology for wider applications in this frequency range. The relative merits of electronic and optical devices are discussed and new device principles identified. Issues of terahertz circuit design, implementation and measurement are complemented by chapters on current and future applications in communications, sensing and remote surveillance. Audience: The unique coverage of all aspects of terahertz technology will appeal to both new and established workers in the field, as well as providing a survey for the interested reader.

This monograph solely investigates the Debye Screening Length (DSL) in semiconductors and their nano-structures. The materials considered are quantized structures of non-linear optical, III-V, II-VI, Ge, Te, Platinum Antimonide, stressed materials, Bismuth, GaP, Gallium Antimonide, II-V and Bismuth Telluride respectively. The DSL in opto-electronic materials and their quantum confined counterparts is studied in the presence of strong light waves and intense electric fields on the basis of newly formulated electron dispersion laws that control the studies of such quantum effect devices. The suggestions for the experimental determination of 2D and 3D DSL and the importance of measurement of band gap in optoelectronic materials under intense built-in electric field in nano devices and strong external photo excitation (for measuring photon induced physical properties) have also been discussed in this context. The influence of crossed electric and quantizing magnetic fields on the DSL and the DSL in heavily doped semiconductors and their nanostructures has been investigated. This monograph contains 150 open research problems which form the integral part of the text and are useful for both PhD students and researchers in the fields of solid-state sciences, materials science, nano-science and technology and allied fields in addition to the graduate courses in modern semiconductor nanostructures.

Energy-Filtering Transmission Electron Microscopy (EFTEM) presents a summary of the electron optics, the electron-specimen interactions, and the operation and contrast modes of this new field of analytical electron microscopy. The electron optics of filter lenses and the progress in the correction of aberrations are discussed in detail. An evaluation of our present knowledge of plasmon losses and inner-shell ionisations is of increasing interest for a quantitative application of EFTEM in materials and life sciences. This can be realized not only by filtering the elastically scattered electrons but mainly by imgaging and analyzing with inelastically scattered electrons at different energy losses up to 2000 eV. The strength of EFTEM is the combination of the modes EELS, ESI, ESD and REM.

Chemical relaxation spectrometry involves the application of several different relaxation techniques to investigate the kinetics and mechanisms of fast chemical reactions and also dynamic molecul 10 ar processes that occur in liquids in the time range 1 - 10- secs. These methods have been used widely in several disciplines of the natural sciences including molecular biology, biochemistry, organic stereochemistry, detergent chemistry and inorganic chemistry. The purpose of the Advanced Study Institute was to provide a forum for scientists to discuss the role, scope and limitations of the various applications of chemical relaxation methods in order to stimulate discussion and interaction between workers in these different fields. The papers described in this volume are a summary of the contributions that were discussed at the meeting. The brief given to the authors was to attempt to prepare an article contain ing a good supply of references so that the book can be used not only by those starting in the field, but also by the specialist and research worker. These contributions cover a varied range of topics summarizing the achievements, the current state of knowledge and possible application in many disciplines. It is to be hoped that this volume will help to point out some new directions towards which research efforts are required and to attract new researchers with fresh points of view."

Photonic band gap crystals offer unique ways to tailor light and the propagation of electromagnetic waves. In analogy to electrons in a crystal, EM waves propagating in a structure with a periodically-modulated dielectric constant are organized into photonic bands separated by gaps in which propagating states are forbidden. Proposed applications of such photonic band gap crystals, operating at frequencies from microwave to optical, include zero- threshold lasers, low-loss resonators and cavities, and efficient microwave antennas. Spontaneous emission is suppressed for photons in the photonic band gap, offering novel approaches to manipulating the EM field and creating high-efficiency light-emitting structures. Photonic Band Gap Materials identifies three most promising areas of research. The first is materials fabrication, involving the creation of high quality, low loss, periodic dielectric structures. The smallest photonic crystals yet fabricated have been made by machining Si wafers along (110), and some have lattice constants as small as 500 microns. The second area is in applications. Possible applications presented are microwave mirrors, directional antennas, resonators (especially in the 2 GHz region), filters, waveguides, Y splitters, and resonant microcavities. The third area covers fundamentally new physical phenomena in condensed matter physics and quantum optics. An excellent review of recent development, covering theoretical, experimental and applied aspects. Interesting and stimulating reading for active researchers, as well as a useful reference for non-specialists.

Topological Insulators (TIs) are insulators in the bulk, but have exotic metallic states at their surfaces. The topology, associated with the electronic wavefunctions of these systems, changes when passing from the bulk to the surface. This work studies, by means of infrared spectroscopy, the low energy optical conductivity of Bismuth based TIs in order to identify the extrinsic charge contribution of the bulk and to separate it from the intrinsic contribution of the surface state carriers. The extensive results presented in this thesis definitely shows the 2D character of the carriers in Bismuth-based topological insulators. The experimental apparatus and the FTIR technique, the theory of optical properties and Surface Plasmon Polaritons, as well as sample preparation of both crystals and thin films, and the analysis procedures are thoroughly described.

This book provides a concise overview of the photophysics and spectroscopy of bio chromophore ions. The book "Photophysics of Ionic Biochromophores" summarizes important recent advances in the spectroscopy of isolated biomolecular ions in vacuo, which has within the last decade become a highly active research field. Advanced instrumental apparatus and the steady increase in more and more powerful computers have made this development possible, both for experimentalists and theoreticians. Applied techniques described here include absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, which are excellent indicators of environmental effects and can thus shed light on the intrinsic electronic structures of ions without perturbations from e.g. water molecules, counter ions, nearby charges, and polar amino acid residues. When compared with spectra of the chromophores in their natural environment, such spectra allow to identify possible perturbations. At the same time gas-phase spectra provide important benchmarks for quantum chemistry calculations of electronically excited states. This volume focuses on biological systems from protein biochromophores, e.g. the protonated Schiff-base retinal responsible for vision, and individual aromatic amino acids to peptides and whole proteins, studied using visible, ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet light. Work on DNA nucleotides and strands that are amenable to mass spectrometric studies because of the negatively charged sugarphosphate backbone are also presented. DNA strands represent an example of the interplay between multiple chromophores, which is even harder to model correctly than just single chromophores due to spatially extended excited states and weak coupling terms. The experimental techniques used to measure spectra and commonly used theoretical methods are described with a discussion on limitations and advantages. The volume includes an updated status of the field and interesting future directions such as cold ion spectroscopy.

This book presents the latest developments in Femtosecond Chemistry and Physics for the study of ultrafast photo-induced molecular processes. Molecular systems, from the simplest H2 molecule to polymers or biological macromolecules, constitute central objects of interest for Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and despite the broad range of phenomena that they exhibit, they share some common behaviors. One of the most significant of those is that many of the processes involving chemical transformation (nuclear reorganization, bond breaking, bond making) take place in an extraordinarily short time, in or around the femtosecond temporal scale (1 fs = 10-15 s). A number of experimental approaches - very particularly the developments in the generation and manipulation of ultrashort laser pulses - coupled with theoretical progress, provide the ultrafast scientist with powerful tools to understand matter and its interaction with light, at this spatial and temporal scale. This book is an attempt to reunite some of the state-of-the-art research that is being carried out in the field of ultrafast molecular science, from theoretical developments, through new phenomena induced by intense laser fields, to the latest techniques applied to the study of molecular dynamics.

This book presents a comprehensive description of phonons and their interactions in systems with different dimensions and length scales. Internationally-recognized leaders describe theories and measurements of phonon interactions in relation to the design of materials with exotic properties such as metamaterials, nano-mechanical systems, next-generation electronic, photonic, and acoustic devices, energy harvesting, optical information storage, and applications of phonon lasers in a variety of fields.

The emergence of techniques for control of semiconductor properties and geometry has enabled engineers to design structures in which functionality is derived from controlling electron behavior. As manufacturing techniques have greatly expanded the list of available materials and the range of attainable length scales, similar opportunities now exist for designing devices whose functionality is derived from controlling phonon behavior. However, progress in this area is hampered by gaps in our knowledge of phonon transport across and along arbitrary interfaces, the scattering of phonons with crystal defects, interface roughness and mass-mixing, delocalized electrons/collective electronic excitations, and solid acoustic vibrations when these occur in structures with small physical dimensions. This book providesa comprehensive description of phonons and their interactions in systems with different dimensions and length scales. Theories and measurements of phonon interactions are described in relation to the design of materials with exotic properties such as metamaterials, nano-mechanical systems, next-generation electronic, photonic, and acoustic devices, energy harvesting, optical information storage, and applications of phonon lasers in a variety of fields."