Optical Properties and Materials

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

  • Radiation and resources

  • Reaction between radiation and materials

• Emission of Continuous and Characteristic Radiation

  • Continuous spectrum

  • Characteristic spectrum

• Applications of Photon Emission

  • Electron probe microanalysis

    • Qualitative analysis

    • Quantitative analysis

  • Luminescence

• Laser and Laser Materials

  • What is a laser?

  • Laser materials

    • Solid-state laser

    • Semiconductor laser

  • Laser applications

• Case Study – A Compact Disc (CD) System

  • Principle of digital optical storage

  • CD materials

• Thermal Photoemission

• Interaction of Photons with Materials

  • Absorption and transmission

  • Case study – Colour

  • Refraction

  • Reflection

• Case Study – Optical Fibers and Photonic Systems

  • Advantages of optical telecommunications

  • Material properties for optical fibres

  • Structure of optical fibre cables

  • Photonic communication system