Light classical properties

The nanostructure of a material is its stmcture at an atomic scale. Nanoparticles and nanostructures generally refer to structures that are small enough that chemical and physical properties are observably different from the normal or classical properties of bulk solids. The dimension at which this transformation becomes apparent depends on the phenomenon investigated. In the case of thermal effects, the boundary occurs at approximately the value of thermal energy, kT, which is about 4 X 10 J. In the case of optical effects, nonclas-sical behaviour is noted when the scale of the object illuminated is of the same size as a light wave, say about 5 x 10 m. For particles such as electrons, the scale is determined by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, at about 3 x 10- m. 

Basically, Newtonian mechanics worked well for problems involving terrestrial and even celestial bodies, providing rational and quantifiable relationships between mass, velocity, acceleration, and force. However, in the realm of optics and electricity, numerous observations seemed to defy Newtonian laws. Phenomena such as diffraction and interference could only be explained if light had both particle and wave properties. Indeed, particles such as electrons and x-rays appeared to have both discrete energy states and momentum, properties similar to those of light. None of the classical, or Newtonian, laws could account for such behavior, and such inadequacies led scientists to search for new concepts in the consideration of the nature of reahty. 

We have shown in this chapter how some experiments made it necessary in some cases to use a quantum description of light instead of the standard semi-classical theory where only the atomic part is quantized. A brief description of different helds in terms of their statistical properties was also given. This description makes it possible to discriminate between the different sources using the intensity autocorrelation function (r). 

The overall objective of this chapter is to review the fundamental issues involved in the transport of macromolecules in hydrophilic media made of synthetic or naturally occurring uncharged polymers with nanometer-scale pore structure when an electric field is applied. The physical and chemical properties and structural features of hydrophilic polymeric materials will be considered first. Although the emphasis will be on classical polymeric gels, discussion of polymeric solutions and nonclassical gels made of, for example, un-cross-linked macromolecular units such as linear polymers and micelles will also be considered in light of recent interest in these materials for a number of applications... 

We present here a condensed explanation and summary of the effects. A complete discussion can be found in a paper by Hellen and Axelrod(33) which directly calculates the amount of emission light gathered by a finite-aperture objective from a surface-proximal fluorophore under steady illumination. The effects referred to here are not quantum-chemical, that is, effects upon the orbitals or states of the fluorophore in the presence of any static fields associated with the surface. Rather, the effects are "classical-optical," that is, effects upon the electromagnetic field generated by a classical oscillating dipole in the presence of an interface between any media with dissimilar refractive indices. Of course, both types of effects may be present simultaneously in a given system. However, the quantum-chemical effects vary with the detailed chemistry of each system, whereas the classical-optical effects are more universal. Occasionally, a change in the emission properties of a fluorophore at a surface may be attributed to the former when in fact the latter are responsible. 

Early in the 20th century chemists began to research and exploit physical properties of the analyte properties, such as conductivity, electrode potential, light absorption or emission, mass-to-charge ratio and fluorescence for solving analytical problems. Classical principles remain useful in modem analytical instruments and methods. In comparison to classical methods the output of instrumental methods is a signal from which the result of the analyses is calculated. Instrumental analysis is most useful for elemental determinations at minor and trace levels (about 1% all the way down to 1 atom)—in this range classical analysis does not perform well. 

Common liquids are optically isotropic, and the solids that physicists seem to like most are cubic and therefore isotropic. As a consequence, treatments of optical properties, particularly from a microscopic point of view, usually favor isotropic matter. Among the host of naturally occurring sohds, however, most are not isotropic. This somewhat complicates both theory and experiment for example, measurements of optical constants must be made with oriented crystals and polarized light. But because of the prevalence of optically anisotropic solids, we are compelled to extend the classical models to embrace this added complexity. 

In the late nineteenth century, a whole set of experiments progressively lead to the conclusion that classical physics, namely, Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics, and nascent electromagnetism, were unable to explain empirical evidence gathered by experimentalists. Scientists of that time were unable to conciliate two apparent contradictory aspects exhibited by radiation and matter. Some experiments demonstrated that light behaved like a wave, while others showed a rather corpuscular nature. On the other hand, electrons, protons, and the other massive particles would manifest wave-like properties in certain experimental conditions. 

For the light molecules He and H2 at low temperatures (below about 50°C.) the classical theory of transport phenomena cannot be applied because of the importance of quantum effects. The Chapman-Enskog theory has been extended to take into account quantum effects independently by Uehling and Uhlenbeck (Ul, U2) and by Massey and Mohr (M7). The theory for mixtures was developed by Hellund and Uehling (H3). It is possible to distinguish between two kinds of quantum effects— diffraction effects and statistics effects the latter are not important until one reaches temperatures below about 1°K. Recently Cohen, Offerhaus, and de Boer (C4) made calculations of the self-diffusion, binary-diffusion, and thermal-diffusion coefficients of the isotopes of helium. As yet no experimental measurements of these properties are available. 

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