NanoScienceWorks

Although the theory and principles of optical waveguides have been established for more than a century, the technologies have only been realized in recent decades. Optical Waveguides: From Theory to Applied Technologies combines the most relevant aspects of waveguide theory with the study of current detailed waveguiding technologies, in particular, photonic devices, telecommunication applications, and biomedical optics.

With self-contained chapters written by well-known specialists, the book features both fundamentals and applications. The first three chapters examine the theoretical foundations and bases of planar optical waveguides as well as critical optical properties such as birefringence and nonlinear optical phenomena. The next several chapters focus on contemporary waveguiding technologies that include photonic devices and telecommunications. The book concludes with discussions on additional technological applications, including biomedical optical waveguides and the potential of neutron waveguides.

As optical waveguides play an increasing part in modern technology, photonics will become to the 21st century what electronics were to the 20th century. Offering both novel insights for experienced professionals and introductory material for novices, this book facilitates a better understanding of the new information era-the photonics century.

Our civilization owes its most significant milestones to our use of materials. Metals gave us better agriculture and eventually the industrial revolution, silicon gave us the digital revolution, and we're just beginning to see what carbon nanotubes will give us. Taking a fresh, interdisciplinary look at the field, Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering emphasizes the importance of materials to engineering applications and builds the basis needed to select, modify, or create materials to meet specific criteria.

The most outstanding feature of this text is the author's unique and engaging application-oriented approach. Beginning each chapter with a real-life example, an experiment, or several interesting facts, Yip-Wah Chung wields an expertly crafted treatment with which he entertains and motivates as much as he informs and educates. He links the discipline to the life sciences and includes modern developments such as nanomaterials, polymers, and thin films while working systematically from atomic bonding and analytical methods to crystalline, electronic, mechanical, and magnetic properties as well as ceramics, corrosion, and phase diagrams.

Woven among the interesting examples, stories, and Chinese folk tales is a rigorous yet approachable mathematical and theoretical treatise. This makes Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering an effective tool for anyone needing a strong background in materials science for a broad variety of applications.