Optics overview

This overview will first deal with the optical aspects of conventional microscopes and the various means to improve contrast. Confocal microscopy, which in the last decade has become an important tool, especially for biology, is discussed in the final section. 

In this chapter we review some of the most important developments in recent years in connection with the use of optical teclmiques for the characterization of surfaces. We start with an overview of the different approaches available to tire use of IR spectroscopy. Next, we briefly introduce some new optical characterization methods that rely on the use of lasers, including nonlinear spectroscopies. The following section addresses the use of x-rays for diffraction studies aimed at structural detenninations. Lastly, passing reference is made to other optical teclmiques such as ellipsometry and NMR, and to spectroscopies that only partly depend on photons. 

The study of organic semiconductors and conductors is highly iaterdisciplinary, involving the fields of chemistry, soHd-state physics, engineering, and biology. This article provides a treatment of the theoretical aspects of organic semiconductors as well as an overview of recent advances ia the field and the uses of these materials based on their conductive and optical properties. 

A. B. Marchant, Optical Recording A Technical Overview, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., Reading, Mass., 1990. 

The relevance of photonics technology is best measured by its omnipresence. Semiconductor lasers, for example, are found in compact disk players, CD-ROM drives, and bar code scaimers, as well as in data communication systems such as telephone systems. Compound semiconductor-based LEDs utilized in multicolor displays, automobile indicators, and most recendy in traffic lights represent an even bigger market, with approximately 1 biUion in aimual sales. The trend to faster and smaller systems with lower power requirements and lower loss has led toward the development of optical communication and computing systems and thus rapid technological advancement in photonics systems is expected for the future. In this section, compound semiconductor photonics technology is reviewed with a focus on three primary photonic devices LEDs, laser diodes, and detectors. Overviews of other important compound semiconductor-based photonic devices can be found in References 75—78. 

In an excellent historical overview of these stages and the intellectual and practical problems which had to be overcome, Mulvey (1995) remarks that the first production microscopes pursued exactly the same electron-optical design as Ruska s first experimental microscope. The stages of subsequent improvement are outlined by Mulvey, to whom the reader is referred for further details. 

These brief examples of developments in semiconductor technology and optoelectronics are offered to give the flavour of recent semiconductor research. An accessible technical account of MBE and its triumphs can be found in an overview by Cho (1995), while a more impressionistic but very vivid account of Capasso and his researches at Bell Labs is in a popular book by Amato (1997). A very extensive historical survey of the enormous advances in optical and optoelectronic physics , with attention to the materials involved, is in a book chapter by Brown and Pike (1995). 

A concise survey of where the broad domain of optical information processing had got to a few years ago is in a book issued by the European Commission (Kotte et al. 1989), while a good overview of non-linear optical materials is by Bloor (1994). 

There are two primary methods of aligning machine trains dial indicator alignment and optical, or laser, alignment. This section provides an overview of each, with an emphasis on dial-indicator methods. 

The chapter is organized as follows in Section 8.2 a brief overview of ultrafast optical dynamics in polymers is given in Section 8.3 we present m-LPPP and give a summary of optical properties in Section 8.4 the laser source and the measuring techniques are described in Section 8.5 we discuss the fundamental photoexcitations of m-LPPP Section 8.6 is dedicated to radiative recombination under several excitation conditions and describes in some detail amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) Section 8.7 discusses the charge generation process and the photoexcitation dynamics in the presence of an external electric field conclusions are reported in the last section. 

Diheterolevulosans, 209-211, 240 Dihexulose dianhydrides, 207 -266, see also Caramels Di-D-fructose dianhydrides 13C NMR spectra, 245-246 conformation, electronic control, 224-228 conformational rigidity, energetic outcomes, 228 hexulopyranose rings, 226 historical overview, 210-213 H NMR spectra, 248 -249 intramolecular hydrogen-bonds, 227 isomerization, 231 -232 1,2-linked, ero-anomeric effect, 224-225 listing, 240-241 nomenclature, 208-210 optical rotations and melting points, 242-243 protonic activation... 

This chapter explains how optical and infrared detectors work, from basic principles to the state-of-the-art. The role of optical and infrared detectors in an observatory is presented, and the state-of-the-art is related to an ideal detector. An overview of the detector physics is presented, showing that the detection of light is a 5 step process. Each step in this process is explained in detail in the subsequent sections. The chapter concludes with references for further information. 

In this section, an overview of detector architecture and operation is given. Although optical and infrared detectors are often thought of as very different beasts, in practice they are more alike than different. Thus, optical and infrared... 

For an excellent overview of aU aspects of astronomical instrumentation, please see the classic textbook by Ian Mclxan. This book contains a very good pedantic explanation of optical and infrared detectors. 

In this chapter, we have provided an overview of near-field imaging and spectroscopy of noble metal nanoparticles and assemblies. We have shown that plasmon-mode wavefunctions and enhanced optical fields of nanoparticle systems can be visualized. The basic knowledge about localized electric fields induced by the plasmons may lead to new innovative research areas beyond the conventional scope of materials. 

In Section 2.4, the main aspects of the nitrogen-induced structural changes are presented, by the discussion of the most important characterization techniques. This presentation is complemented by an overview of a-C(N) H structure. Finally, in Sections 2.5 and 2.6, respectively, results concerning the mechanical properties, and the electrical and optical properties of a-C(N) H films are presented. As long as possible, they will be correlated with the observed structure changes. 

Poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs), of which poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is the most common, can be accumulated by a large number of bacteria as energy and carbon reserve. Due to their bio degradability and bio compatibility these optically active biopolyesters may find industrial applications. A general overview of the physical and material properties of PHAs, alongside with accomplished applications and new developments in this field is presented in this chapter. 

Marazuela M.D., Moreno-Bondi M.C., Fiber-optic biosensors - an overview, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2002 372 664. 

The prevalently used waveguides are optical fibres. Fibre technology is standard in the UV to near-IR, but also some fibres for light transport in the mid-IR have been developed. An overview of different IR fibre materials and their characteristic performance parameters is given in Table 1. More details can be found in a number of reviews focused on the material properties of IR transmitting optical fibres26 31. For some applications, as an alternative to optical fibres also hollow waveguides may be used. 

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