Novel Optical Materials and Applications

This research monograph explores novel optical materials and their unique physical, optical, and electronic properties, and the role they play in the newest developments in optical communication, signal, and image processing application and the Information Superhighway. Leading authorities present a detailed treatment of optical materials. The book covers semiconductor quantized structures, polymers, liquid crystals, composite materials, nonlinear crystals, and more.

Table of Contents:
Partial table of contents: Molecular Nonlinear Optics: Fundamentals and Applications (I. Ledoux & J. Zyss). Cascading: A Promising Approach to Nonlinear Optical Phenomena (G. Stegeman, et al.). Nonlinear Effects in Nematics Doped by Dyes and Chiral Agents (G. Abbate, et al.). New Nonlinear Materials for High--Power Frequency Conversion: From the Near--Ultraviolet to the Long--Wave Infrared (M. Rosker & H. Marcy). Intersubband Transitions for Infrared Electro--Optics and Nonlinear Optics (J. Meyer, et al.). Fullerene--Doped Liquid Crystal Fibers and Fiber Arrays for All--Optical Switching (I. Khoo). Photoinduced Circular Birefringence: Principles, Materials, and Applications (C. Buss, et al.). Index.

About the Author :
About the editors IAM--CHOON KHOO, PhD, is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, where he has received several awards for both teaching and research. For his pioneering work in nonlinear optics of liquid crystals and nonlinear optics in general, Dr. Khoo was elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 1988. He chaired the society's Nonlinear Optics Technical Committee from 1992 to 1994. He is the author of Liquid Crystals: Physical Properties and Nonlinear Optical Phenomena, also available from Wiley. FRANCESCO SIMONI, PhD, is Professor of Physics at the University of Ancona, Italy. A graduate of the University of Rome, he was associate professor at the University of Calabria and at the University of Naples before joining the Department of Materials and Earth Sciences of the University of Ancona in 1994. He is the author of several publications in internationally refereed journals as well as a book on nonlinear optics of liquid crystalline materials. He is on the editorial boards of several international journals and has coedited books and special issues of technical journals. CESARE UMETON, PhD, is Associate Professor of Quantum Optics and leader of the Optics Group at the Physics Department of the University of Calabria. He is the author or coauthor of more than forty papers and fifty communications to international conferences. Dr. Umeton is a member of the International Liquid Crystal Society, Societa Italiana di Fisica, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, Societa Italiana Cristalli Liquidi, Gruppo Nazionale di Struttura della Materia, and the Ampere Group. He is the president of the Association for Novel Optical Materials and Applications.