A Valuable Reference for Understanding Basic Optical Principals Need a crash course in optics? If you are a non-specialist with little or no knowledge of optical components, systems, or hardware, who suddenly finds it necessary to work with optics in your given field, then Optics Essentials: An Interdisciplinary Guide is the book for you. Aimed at engineers and other interdisciplinary professionals tackling optics-related challenges, this text provides a basic overview of optical principles, concepts, and applications as well as worked examples throughout. It enables readers to gain a basic understanding of optics and sense of optical phenomena, without having to commit to extended periods of study. Contains MATLAB (R) Simulations and Suggested ExperimentsThe book provides MATLAB simulations to help the reader visualize concepts, includes simple experiments using everyday materials that are readily available to solidify optical principles, and provides worked examples throughout. It contains a set of suggested experiments in each chapter designed to help the reader understand and visualize the basic principles. While this book assumes that the reader has a basic background in mathematics, it does not burden or overwhelm them with complex information or heavy mathematical equations. In addition, while it also briefly discusses advanced topics, readers are directed to the appropriate texts for more detailed study. Comprised of 11 chapters, this illuminating text: Describes light sources, such as lasers, light-emitting diodes, and thermal sources Compares various light sources, and photometric and radiometric parameters Discusses light detection, including various detector types, such as photon detectors and thermal detectors, and other topics re

Spectropolarimetry embraces the most complete and detailed measurement and analysis of light, as well as its interaction with matter. This book provides an introductory overview of the subject because it is playing an increasingly important role in modern solar observations. Chapters include a comprehensive description of the polarization state of polychromatic light and its measurement; an overview of astronomical polarimetry; and the formation of spectral lines in the presence of a magnetic field. The text is a valuable reference for graduates and researchers in astrophysics, solar physics and optics.

The collection of articles in this book offers a penetrating shaft into the still burgeoning subject of light propagation and localization in photonic crystals and disordered media. While the subject has its origins in physics, it has broad significance and applicability in disciplines such as engineering, chemistry, mathematics, and medicine. Unlike other branches of physics, where the phenomena under consideration require extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, energy, or isolation from competing effects, the phenomena related to light localization survive under the most ordinary of conditions. This provides the science described in this book with broad applicability and vitality. However, the greatest challenge to the further development of this field is in the reliable and inexpensive synthesis of materials of the required composition, architecture and length scale, where the proper balance between order and disorder is realized.
Similar challenges have been faced and overcome in fields such as semiconductor science and technology. The challenge of photonic crystal synthesis has inspired a variety of novel fabrication protocols such as self-assembly and optical interference lithography that offer much less expensive approaches than conventional semiconductor microlithography.
Once these challenges are fully met, it is likely that light propagation and localization in photonic microstructures will be at the heart of a 21st-century revolution in science and technology.
From the Introduction, Sajeev John, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

One of the first books specifically focused on disorder in photonic structures, Optical Properties of Photonic Structures: Interplay of Order and Disorder explores how both order and disorder provide the key to the different regimes of light transport and to the systematic localization and trapping of light. Collecting contributions from leaders of research activity in the field, the book covers many important directions, methods, and approaches. It describes various one-, two-, and three-dimensional structures, including opals, aperiodic Fibonacci-type photonic structures, photonic amorphous structures, photonic glasses, Levy glasses, and hypersonic, magnetophotonic, and plasmonic photonic crystals with nanocavities, quantum dots, and lasing action. The book also addresses practical applications in areas such as optical communications, optical computing, laser surgery, and energy. "

Central to this thesis is the characterisation and exploitation of electromagnetic properties of light in imaging and measurement systems. To this end an information theoretic approach is used to formulate a hitherto lacking, quantitative definition of polarisation resolution, and to establish fundamental precision limits in electromagnetic systems. Furthermore rigorous modelling tools are developed for propagation of arbitrary electromagnetic fields, including for example stochastic fields exhibiting properties such as partial polarisation, through high numerical aperture optics. Finally these ideas are applied to the development, characterisation and optimisation of a number of topical optical systems: polarisation imaging; multiplexed optical data storage; and single molecule measurements. The work has implications for all optical imaging systems where polarisation of light is of concern.

Principles of Optics is one of the most highly cited and most influential physics books ever published, and one of the classic science books of the twentieth century. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of this remarkable book's first publication, the seventh expanded edition has been reprinted with a special foreword by Sir Peter Knight. The seventh edition was the first thorough revision and expansion of this definitive text. Amongst the material introduced in the seventh edition is a section on CAT scans, a chapter on scattering from inhomogeneous media, including an account of the principles of diffraction tomography, an account of scattering from periodic potentials, and a section on the so-called Rayleigh-Sommerfield diffraction theory. This expansive and timeless book continues to be invaluable to advanced undergraduates, graduate students and researchers working in all areas of optics.

Quantum mechanics sets fundamental limits on the amount of information one can extract from a system with a single set of measurements. Recent results of new theoretical analyses and optical experiments have given rise to a more complete knowledge of the quantum properties of light. This book gives the first detailed description of this fascinating branch of quantum optics. The author describes some key results and tools from quantum optics and then discusses the quantum mechanical description of simple optical instruments before giving a detailed treatment of quantum tomography. The book concludes with a chapter devoted to the problem of the simultaneous measurement of position and momentum. This book will appeal to graduate students and researchers in quantum optics as well as anyone interested in the foundations of quantum mechanics or more general problems of quantum measurement.

From science fiction to science laboratories Discover the State of the Art in Photonic Metamaterials Metamaterials-composite media with unusual optical properties-have revolutionized the landscape of optical science and engineering over the past decades. Metamaterials have transformed science-fiction-like concepts of superresolution imaging and optical cloaking to the realm of science laboratories, and further promise to transform these into the realm of our everyday life. This new era of optical metamaterials calls for the development of experimental and theoretical methods capable of analyzing optical behavior on the multitude of scales-from the nanometer scale of individual inhomogeneity, to the micrometer level and the larger scale of metamaterials-based devices. Tutorials in Metamaterials offers a collection of chapters that were designed as self-contained tutorials describing photonic metamaterials and the state of the art in metamaterials research. Chapters cover: Linear and nonlinear properties of photonic metamaterials and their potential applications Fabrication techniques for optical metamaterials, ranging from electron-beam lithography, focused ion beam milling, and nanoimprint lithography to direct laser writing Recent achievements in metatamerial research at visible, IR, and microwave frequencies Novel applications of metamaterials for light guiding, steering, and refraction Efforts to compensate and eliminate optical loss by introducing optical gain into the metamaterial matrix A comprehensive overview of metamaterial photonics, this reference is suitable for graduate students as well as physicists and engineers interested in entering this dynamic new field.

This century has seen the development of technologies for manipulating and controlling matter and light at the level of individual photons and atoms, a realm in which physics is fully quantum-mechanical. The dominant experimental technology is the laser, and the theoretical paradigm is quantum optics.The Quantum World of Ultra-Cold Atoms and Light is a trilogy, which presents the quantum optics way of thinking and its applications to quantum devices. This book - The Physics of Quantum-Optical Devices - provides a comprehensive treatment of theoretical quantum optics. It covers applications to the optical manipulation of the quantum states of atoms, laser cooling, continuous measurement, quantum computers and quantum processors, superconducting systems and quantum networks. The subject is consistently formulated in terms of quantum stochastic techniques, and a systematic and thorough development of these techniques is a central part of the book. There is also a compact overview of the ideas of quantum information theory.The main aim of the book is to present the theoretical techniques necessary for the understanding of quantum optical devices, with special attention to those devices used in quantum information processing and quantum simulation. Although these techniques were developed originally for the optical regime, they are also applicable to electromagnetic radiation from the microwave realm to the ultra-violet, and for atomic systems, Josephson junction systems, quantum dots and nano-mechanical systems.

Hydrodynamic equations well describe averaged parameters of turbulent steady flows, at least in pipes where boundary conditions can be estimated. The equations might outline the parameters fluctuations as well, if entry conditions at current boundaries were known. This raises, in addition, the more comprehensive problem of the primary perturbation nature, noted by H.A. Lorentz, which still remains unsolved. Generally, any flow steadiness should be supported by pressure waves emitted by some external source, e.g. a piston or a receiver. The wave plane front in channels quickly takes convex configuration owing to Rayleigh's law of diffraction divergence. The Schlieren technique and pressure wave registration were employed to investigate the wave interaction with boundary layer, while reflecting from the channel wall. The reflection induces boundary-layer local separation and following pressure rapid increase within the perturbation zone. It propagates as an acoustic wave packet of spherical shape, bearing oscillations of hydrodynamic parameters. Superposition of such packets forms a spatio-temporal field of oscillations fading as 1/r. This implies a mechanism of the turbulence. Vorticity existing in the boundary layer does not penetrate in itself into potential main stream. But the wave leaving the boundary layer carries away some part of fluid along with frozen-in vorticity. The vorticity eddies form another field of oscillations fading as 1/r2. This implies a second mechanism of turbulence. Thereupon the oscillation spatio-temporal field and its randomization development are easy computed. Also, normal burning transition into detonation is explained, and the turbulence inverse problem is set and solved as applied to plasma channels created by laser Besselian beams.

This book gives an in-depth analysis of the physical phenomena of thrust production by laser radiation, as well as laser propulsion engines, and laser-propelled vehicles. It brings together into a unified context accumulated up-to-date information on laser propulsion research, considering propulsion phenomena, laser propulsion techniques, design of vehicles with laser propulsion engines, and high-power laser systems to provide movement for space vehicles. In particular, the reader will find detailed coverage of: designs of laser propulsion engines, operating as both air-breathing and ramjet engines to launch vehicles into LEOs; Assembly of vehicles whereby laser power from a remote laser is collected and directed into a propulsion engine; and, the laser-adaptive systems that control a laser beam to propel vehicles into orbits by delivering laser power through the Earth's atmosphere. This book is essential reading for researchers and professionals involved in laser propulsion.

This book summarizes the latest findings by leading researchers in the field of photon science in Russia and Japan. It discusses recent advances in the field of photon science and chemistry, covering a wide range of topics, including photochemistry and spectroscopy of novel materials, magnetic properties of solids, photobiology and imaging, and spectroscopy of solids and nanostructures. Based on lectures by respected scientists at the forefront of photon and molecular sciences, the book helps keep readers abreast of the current developments in the field.

This book provides a complete mathematical and physical description of both scalar and electromagnetic waves scattering from spherical targets. Focusing primarily on spherical radii much larger than incident wavelengths, Walter Grandy explicates and applies the mathematical tools required for developing a deep understanding of the physical processes involved. He employees common atmospheric phenomena such as the rainbow and glory to illustrate theoretical development. Grandy also provides a detailed analysis of optical resonances and extends the theory to include inhomogeneous and nonspherical particles, collections of spheres, and bubbles. This book will be of primary interest to graduate students and researchers in physics (particularly in the fields of optics, the atmospheric sciences and astrophysics), electrical engineering, physical chemistry and some areas of biology.

This book, the second volume in the popular Game Engine Gems series, contains short articles that focus on a particular technique, describe a clever trick, or offer practical advice within the subject of game engine development. The 31 chapters cover three broad categories graphics and rendering, game engine design, and systems programming. Professional game developers, students of game development and computer science, and anyone interested in learning how the pros tackle specific problems that arise during game engine development will find useful gems in this collection.

Supplementary materials, including demos, source code, examples, specifications, and more can be found at www.gameenginegems.net.

The updated edition of the first of three volumes on Medical Physics focuses even more on body systems related to physical principles such as body mechanics, energy balance, and action potentials. Thanks to numerous newly incorporated didactic features, the introductory text into the broad fi eld of medical physics is easy to understand and supports self-study. New: highlighted boxes emphasize special topics; math boxes explain more advanced mathematical issues; each chapter concludes with a summary of the key concepts, questions, a self-assessment of the acquired competence, and exercises. The appendix contains answers to questions and solutions to exercises.

The updated edition of the second of three volumes on Medical Physics presents modern physical methods for medical diagnostics. It provides a solid background on imaging techniques that use non-ionizing probes (ultrasound, endoscopy including CLE and OCT, MRI) and imaging techniques that use ionizing radiation (X-ray radiography, CT, SPECT, PET). Radiation sources, interactions of radiation with matter and radiation protection for x-rays, -rays, protons and neutrons are presented. Some of these topics are also relevant to the therapeutic applications presented in Volume 3. NEW: highlighted boxes emphasize specifi c topics; math boxes explain more advanced mathematical issues; each chapter concludes with a summary of the key concepts, questions, a self-assessment of the acquired competence and exercises. The appendix provides answers to questions and solutions to exercises.

Completely revised and reorganized while retaining the approachable style of the first edition, Infrared Detectors, Second Edition addresses the latest developments in the science and technology of infrared (IR) detection. Antoni Rogalski, an internationally recognized pioneer in the field, covers the comprehensive range of subjects necessary to understand modern IR detector theory and technology. He presents each topic with a brief summary of historical background followed by summary of principles underlying performance, an overview of properties, and analysis of the state of the art. Divided into four sections, the book covers fundaments of IR detection, IR thermal detectors, IR photon detectors, and focal plane arrays. It begins with a tutorial introduction to essential of different types of IR detectors and systems. The author explores the theory and technology of different thermal detectors and then moves on to the theory and technology of photon detectors. He concludes his treatment with a discussion of IR focal plane arrays where relations between performance of detector array and infrared system quality are considered. New to the Second Edition: Fundamentals of IR detection, radiometry, and flux-transfer issues needed for IR detector and system analysis Major achievements and trends in the development of IR detectors Novel uncooled detectors such as cantilever, antenna, and optically coupled detectors Type II superlattice detectors Quantum dot IR detectors Terahertz (THz) arrays and new generation of IR detectors, so-called third generation detectors The author accomplishes the difficult task of making the information accessible to a wide readership. A comprehensive analysis of the latest developments in IR detector technology and basic insight into the fundamental processes important to evolving detection techniques, the book provides the most complete and up-to-date resource of its kind, including a summary of useful data, guide to the literature, and overview of applications.

A lively exploration of how invisibility has gone from science fiction to fact   Is it possible for something or someone to be made invisible? This question, which has intrigued authors of science fiction for over a century, has become a headline-grabbing topic of scientific research.   In this book, science writer and optical physicist Gregory J. Gbur traces the science of invisibility from its sci-fi origins in the nineteenth-century writings of authors such as H. G. Wells and Fitz James O’Brien to modern stealth technology, invisibility cloaks, and metamaterials. He explores the history of invisibility and its science and technology connections, including the discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum, the development of the atomic model, and quantum theory. He shows how invisibility has moved from fiction to reality, and he questions the hidden paths that lie ahead for researchers.   This is not only the story of invisibility but also the story of humankind’s understanding of the nature of light itself, and of the many fascinating figures whose discoveries advanced this knowledge.

The growing concern worldwide for air pollution, biological threats and security issues has led to an increasing demand for sensors in multiple application areas, thus calling for a fast development of small, reliable, inexpensive sensors which can be easily integrated in various devices and equipments. Research efforts worldwide span diverse areas, including new materials such as nanotubes and nanofibers, miniaturization of electronics through nanotechnology, or integration of several sensors in artificial noses, to name only a few. Most of the time, the research results reported at international conferences are scattered over different disciplines, such as materials science, electronic engineering, optics and photonics, nanotechnology, biochemistry and medicine, information technology, etc., thus making it difficult to get a clear picture of the advances in the sensing field.

The present book covers the main topics presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on a oeSensors for Environment, Health and Security: Advanced Materials and Technologiesa which was held in Vichy (France) on September 16-27, 2007. The book aims at providing the reader with the most recent knowledge in sensing materials and sensor technologies, encompassing different kinds of materials and technologies (semiconductors, photonics, self-assembling, biology, etc). The detection of various analytes or signals (air pollution, biodetection, nuclear detection, etc) finds applications in environmental monitoring, health monitoring and seirity. The underlying physical and chemical phenomena responsible for the detection mechanisms, the most advanced technologies for sensor processing and fabrication, and thefuture challenges to be taken up are addressed in details by outstanding experts from the European Union, Russia and the USA.

Light scattering review (vol 8) is aimed at the presentation of recent advances in radiative transfer and light scattering optics. The topics to be covered include: scattering of light by irregularly shaped particles suspended in atmosphere (dust, ice crystals), light scattering by particles much larger as compared the wavelength of incident radiation, atmospheric radiative forcing, astrophysical radiative transfer, radiative transfer and optical imaging in biological media, radiative transfer of polarized light, numerical aspects of radiative transfer.

This book covers a broad range of topics from the interdisciplinary research field of ultrafast intense laser science, focusing on atoms and molecules interacting with intense laser fields, laser-induced filamentation, high-order harmonics generation, and high power lasers and their applications. This sixteenth volume features contributions from world-renowned researchers, introducing the latest reports on probing molecular chirality with intense laser fields, and the most recent developments in the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility project. The PUILS series delivers up-to-date reviews of progress in this emerging interdisciplinary research field, spanning atomic and molecular physics, molecular science, and optical science, which has been stimulated by the recent developments in ultrafast laser technologies. Each volume compiles peer-reviewed articles authored by researchers at the forefront of each of their own subfields of ultrafast intense laser science. Every chapter opens with an overview of the topics to be discussed, so that researchers unfamiliar to the subfield, especially graduate students, can grasp the importance and attractions of the research topic at hand; these are followed by reports of cutting-edge discoveries.

This century has seen the development of technologies for manipulating and controlling matter and light at the level of individual photons and atoms, a realm in which physics is fully quantum-mechanical. The dominant experimental technology is the laser, and the theoretical paradigm is quantum optics.The Quantum World of Ultra-Cold Atoms and Light is a trilogy, which presents the quantum optics way of thinking and its applications to quantum devices. This book - The Physics of Quantum-Optical Devices - provides a comprehensive treatment of theoretical quantum optics. It covers applications to the optical manipulation of the quantum states of atoms, laser cooling, continuous measurement, quantum computers and quantum processors, superconducting systems and quantum networks. The subject is consistently formulated in terms of quantum stochastic techniques, and a systematic and thorough development of these techniques is a central part of the book. There is also a compact overview of the ideas of quantum information theory.The main aim of the book is to present the theoretical techniques necessary for the understanding of quantum optical devices, with special attention to those devices used in quantum information processing and quantum simulation. Although these techniques were developed originally for the optical regime, they are also applicable to electromagnetic radiation from the microwave realm to the ultra-violet, and for atomic systems, Josephson junction systems, quantum dots and nano-mechanical systems.

This book focuses on recent interconnected topics in nanophotonics written by scientists at the forefront of these fields. The book presents results of numerical investigations of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale and in the attosecond regime using first-principles calculations while also discussing recent experimental developments of higher-order harmonic generation for the field of attosecond science. In addition to this, the book reviews recent advances in select topical areas such as highly efficiency solid-state light sources based on nanophotonics, plasmonic photochemical water splitting for efficient energy harvesting, and optical spectroscopy of single-walled carbon nanotubes with quite rich physics for future application in photonics.

This book presents an overview of both the theory and experimental methods required to realize high efficiency solar absorber devices. It begins with a historical description of the study of spectrally selective solar absorber materials and structures based on optical principles and methods developed over the past few decades. The optical properties of metals and dielectric materials are addressed to provide the background necessary to achieve high performance of the solar absorber devices as applied in the solar energy field. In the following sections, different types of materials and structures, together with the relevant experimental methods, are discussed for practical construction and fabrication of the solar absorber devices, aiming to maximally harvest the solar energy while at the same time effectively suppressing the heat-emission loss. The optical principles and methods used to evaluate the performance of solar absorber devices with broad applications in different physical conditions are presented. The book is suitable for graduate students in applied physics, and provides a valuable reference for researchers working actively in the field of solar energy.

In this monograph, the authors propose a systematic and rigorous treatment of electromagnetic field representations in complex structures. The architecture suggested in this book accommodates use of different numerical methods as well as alternative Green's function representations in each of the subdomains resulting from a partitioning of the overall problem. The subdomains are regions of space where electromagnetic energy is stored and are described in terms of equivalent circuit representations based either on lumped element circuits or on transmission lines. Connection networks connect the subcircuits representing the subdomains. The connection networks are lossless, don't store energy and represent the overall problem topology. This is similar to what is done in circuit theory and permits a phrasing of the solution of EM field problems in complex structures by Network-oriented methods.