This book explains in an accessible way how the concept of the photon was introduced by Einstein who also helped discover many of its properties, and how it interacted with many physical phenomena while revolutionizing the world of physics. Replete with short biographies of the main contributors to the history, the book begins with the historical and scientific conditions that led to the quantization of the electromagnetic field. This upended previously held assumptions about the nature of...

Since the invention of the first working laser in 1960, development of these devices has progressed at an unprecedented rate, to the extent that the laser is now a common part of everyday life, from the semiconductor laser used in CD players and telecommunication systems to the high power eximer lasers used in manufacturing processes. This book tra

Masers and Lasers: An Historical Approach examines the progress of research and practical use of lasers chronologically, covering the fundamental science in detail alongside fascinating biographical sketches of famous physicists and summaries of seminal papers. It supplies helpful drawings of prototype devices, conceptual diagrams to aid in underst

This monograph provides an introductory discussion of evanescent waves and plasmons, describes their properties and uses, and shows how they are fundamental when operating with nanoscale optics. Far field optics is not suitable for the design, description, and operation of devices at this nanometre scale. Instead one must work with models based on near-field optics and surface evanescent waves. The new discipline of plasmonics has grown to encompass the generation and application of plasmo...

Nanoscience is not physics, chemistry, engineering or biology. It is all of them, and it is time for a text that integrates the disciplines. This is such a text, aimed at advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in the sciences. The consequences of smallness and quantum behaviour are well known and described Richard Feynman's visionary essay 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom' (which is reproduced in this book). Another, critical, but thus far neglected, aspect of nanosci...

This book provides a sound foundation for understanding abstract concepts of phase and reaction equilibria (e.g. partial molar Gibbs energy, fugacity, and activity), and shows how to apply these concepts to solve practical problems using numerous clear examples. It also presents numerical methods necessary for solving real-world problems as well the basic mathematics needed, facilitating its use as a self-study reference work. In the example problems requiring MATHCAD® for the solution, th...

Diseases, the second volume in the four volume set, The Mouse in Biomedical Research, departs from the first edition, by discussing specific disease causing microorganisms, rather than the format used in the first edition which discussed infectious diseases affecting specific organs and tissues. As such, the volume consists of 26 chapters subdivided into RNA viruses and DNA viruses, as well as bacterial, mycotic, and parasitic infections. These chapters not only provide updates on pathogen...

The thermal processing of materials ranges from few fem to seconds by Swift Heavy Ion Implantation to about one second using advanced Rapid Thermal Annealing. This book offers after an historical excursus selected contributions on fundamental and applied aspects of thermal processing of classical elemental semiconductors and other advanced materials including nanostructures with novel optoelectronic, magnetic, and superconducting properties. Special emphasis is given on the diffusion and s...

Characterization of Semiconductor Heterostructures and Nanostructures is structured so that each chapter is devoted to a specific characterization technique used in the understanding of the properties (structural, physical, chemical, electrical etc..) of semiconductor quantum wells and superlattices. An additional chapter is devoted to ab initio modeling. The book has two basic aims. The first is educational, providing the basic concepts of each of the selected techniques with an approach ...

In the past 30 years, magnetic research has been dominated by the question of how surfaces and interfaces influence the magnetic and transport properties of nanostructures, thin films and multilayers. The research has been particularly important in the magnetic recording industry where the giant magnetoresistance effect led to a new generation of storage devices including hand-held memories such as those found in the ipod. More recently, transfer of spin angular momentum across interfaces ...

Combining state-of-the-art research with a strong pedagogic approach, this text provides a detailed and complete guide to the theory, practice and applications of optical tweezers. In-depth derivation of the theory of optical trapping and numerical modelling of optical forces are supported by a complete step-by-step design and construction guide for building optical tweezers, with detailed tutorials on collecting and analysing data. Also included are comprehensive reviews of optical tweeze...

The thesis covers a broad range of electronic, optical and opto-electronic devices and various predicted physical effects. In particular, it examines the quantum interference transistor effect in graphene nanorings; tunable spin-filtering and spin-dependent negative differential resistance in composite heterostructures based on graphene and ferromagnetic materials; optical and novel electro-optical bistability and hysteresis in compound systems and the real-time control of radiation patter...