Advanced Optical Processing Of Materials

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to integrated optical waveguides for information technology and data communications. Integrated coverage ranges from advanced materials, fabrication, and characterization techniques to guidelines for design and simulation. A concluding chapter offers perspectives on likely future trends and challenges. The dramatic scaling down of feature sizes has driven exponential improvements in semiconductor productivity and performance in the past several decades. However, with the potential of gigascale integration, size reduction is approaching a physical limitation due to the negative impact on resistance and inductance of metal interconnects with current copper-trace based technology. Integrated optics provides a potentially lower-cost, higher performance alternative to electronics in optical communication systems. Optical interconnects, in which light can be generated, guided, modulated, amplified, and detected, can provide greater bandwidth, lower power consumption, decreased interconnect delays, resistance to electromagnetic interference, and reduced crosstalk when integrated into standard electronic circuits. Integrated waveguide optics represents a truly multidisciplinary field of science and engineering, with continued growth requiring new developments in modeling, further advances in materials science, and innovations in integration platforms. In addition, the processing and fabrication of these new devices must be optimized in conjunction with the development of accurate and precise characterization and testing methods. Students and professionals in materials science and engineering will find Advanced Materials for Integrated Optical Waveguides to be an invaluable reference for meeting these research and development goals.

Since the inauguration of the MRS symposium series on advanced optical processing of materials back in 1990, the number of optical-based techniques applied to process materials and the capabilities of optical systems has continued to expand and improve beyond simple pulsed-laser deposition of thin films. In turn, the scope of materials being investigated has also increased from oxide ceramics to include alloys, polymers and bio-materials. Many of the most exciting areas presented in this interdisciplinary forum include current and future applications in engineering materials at the mesoscopic-to-nanometer scale, optoelectronics, biomaterials, sensors and electronics. Advanced optical processing of materials now includes laser interactions with materials that are specially designed to optimize the beneficial qualities of laser modification. However, femtosecond processing of materials emerged as the dominant theme this year and several papers on this topic are featured. Another hot topic is one connected with biomedical applications--the controlled delivery of drugs to increase their efficacy by coating a fluidized bed of drug powders with biodegradable polymers was realized by conventional pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) and matrix assisted pulsed-laser evaporation (MAPLE) or by microencapsulation.

Optical Materials, Second Edition, presents, in a unified form, the underlying physical and structural processes that determine the optical behavior of materials. It does this by combining elements from physics, optics, and materials science in a seamless manner, and introducing quantum mechanics when needed. The book groups the characteristics of optical materials into classes with similar behavior. In treating each type of material, the text pays particular attention to atomic composition and chemical makeup, electronic states and band structure, and physical microstructure so that the reader will gain insight into the kinds of materials engineering and processing conditions that are required to produce a material exhibiting a desired optical property. The physical principles are presented on many levels, including a physical explanation, followed by formal mathematical support and examples and methods of measurement. The reader may overlook the equations with no loss of comprehension, or may use the text to find appropriate equations for calculations of optical properties. Includes a fundamental description of optical materials at the beginner and advanced levels Provides a thorough coverage of the field and presents new concepts in an easy to understand manner that combines written explanations and equations Serves as a valuable toolbox of applications and equations for the working reader

Optical Materials, Second Edition, presents, in a unified form, the underlying physical and structural processes that determine the optical behavior of materials. It does this by combining elements from physics, optics, and materials science in a seamless manner, and introducing quantum mechanics when needed. The book groups the characteristics of optical materials into classes with similar behavior. In treating each type of material, the text pays particular attention to atomic composition and chemical makeup, electronic states and band structure, and physical microstructure so that the reader will gain insight into the kinds of materials engineering and processing conditions that are required to produce a material exhibiting a desired optical property. The physical principles are presented on many levels, including a physical explanation, followed by formal mathematical support and examples and methods of measurement. The reader may overlook the equations with no loss of comprehension, or may use the text to find appropriate equations for calculations of optical properties. Includes a fundamental description of optical materials at the beginner and advanced levels Provides a thorough coverage of the field and presents new concepts in an easy to understand manner that combines written explanations and equations Serves as a valuable toolbox of applications and equations for the working reader

In the last decade, optically functionalized materials have developed rapidly, from bulk matters to structured forms. Now we have a rich variety of attractive advanced materials. They are applied to optical and electrical devices that support the information communication technology in the mid 21-th century. Accordingly, it is quite important to have a broad knowledge of the optical properties of advanced materials for students, scientists and engineers working in optics and related fields. This book is designed to teach fundamental optical properties of such advanced materials effectively. These materials have their own peculiarities which are very interesting in modern optical physics and also for applications because the concepts of optical properties are quite different from those in conventional optical materials. Hence each chapter starts to review the basic concepts of the materials briefly and proceeds to the practical use. The important topics covered in this book include: quantum structures of semiconductors, spintronics, photonic crystals, surface plasmons in metallic nanostructures, photonic metamaterials, liquid crystal materials, organic LED materials and magnet-optics.

Advanced Optical Instruments and Techniques includes twenty-three chapters providing processes, methods, and procedures of cutting-edge optics engineering design and instrumentation. Topics include biomedical instrumentation and basic and advanced interferometry. Optical metrology is discussed, including point and full-field methods. Active and adaptive optics, holography, radiometry, the human eye, and visible light are covered as well as materials, including photonics, nanophotonics, anisotropic materials, and metamaterials.