The dielectric microstructures act as ultrahigh Q factors optical cavities, which modify the spontaneous emission rates and alter the spatial distributions of the input and output radiation. The editors have selected leading scientists who have made seminal contributions in different aspects of optical processes in microcavities. Every attempt has been made to unify the underlying physics pertaining to microcavities of various shapes. This book begins with a chapter on the role of microcavity modes with additional chapters on how these microcavity modes affect the spontaneous and stimulated emission rates, enhance nonlinear optical processes, used in cavity-QED and chemical physics experiments, aid in single-molecule detection, influence the design of microdisk semiconductor lasers, and how deformed cavities can be treated with classical chaos theory.

Progress in Optics Volume 41.

This Festschrift is a tribute to the eminent scholar, Professor Richard Kounai Chang, on his retirement from Yale University on June 12, 2008. During his over four decades of scientific exploration, Professor Chang has made a lasting contribution to the development of linear and nonlinear optics and devices in confined geometries, of surface second-harmonic generation and surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and of novel methods for detecting airborne aerosol pathogens. This volume assembles a collection of articles contributed by former students, collaborators, and colleagues of Professor Chang all over the world. The topics span a diverse scope in applied optics frontiers, many of which are rooted in Professor Chang's pioneering research.

Optical microcavities are structures that enable confinement of light to microscale volumes. The universal importance of these structures has made them indispensable to a wide range of fields. This important book describes the many applications and the related physics, providing both a review and a tutorial of key subjects by leading researchers from each field. The topics include cavity QED and quantum information, nanophotonics and nanostructure interactions, wavelength switching and modulation in optical communications, optical chaos and biosensors.

The control of optical modes in microcavities or in photonic bandgap (PBG) materials is coming of age! Although these ideas could have been developed some time ago, it is only recently that they have emerged, due to advances in both atomic physics and in fabrication techniques, be it on the high-quality dielectric mirrors required for high-finesse Fabry Perot resonators or in semiconductor multilayer deposition methods. Initially the principles of quantum electro-dynamics (QED) were demonstrated in elegant atomic physics experiments. Now solid-state implementations are being investigated, with several subtle differences from the atomic case such as those due to their continuum of electronic states or the near Boson nature of their elementary excitations, the exciton. Research into quantum optics brings us ever newer concepts with potential to improve system performance such as photon squeezing, quantum cryptography, reversible taps, photonic de Broglie waves and quantum computers. The possibility of implementing these ideas with solid-state systems gives us hope that some could indeed find their way to the market, demonstrating the continuing importance of basic research for applications, be it in a somewhat more focused way than in earlier times for funding.

Confinement and manipulation of photons using microcavities have triggered intense research interest in both basic and applied physics for more than a decade. Prominent examples are whispering gallery microcavities which confine photons by means of continuous total internal reflection along a curved and smooth surface. The long photon lifetime, strong field confinement, and in-plane emission characteristics make them promising candidates for enhancing light-matter interactions on a chip. In this book, we will introduce different ultra-high-Q whispering gallery microcavities, and focus on their applications in enhancing light-matter interaction, such as ultralow-threshold microlasing, highly sensitive optical biosensing, nonlinear optics, cavity quantum electrodynamics and cavity optomechanics.

The optical properties of semiconductors have played an important role since the identification of semiconductors as "small" bandgap materials in the thinies, due both to their fundamental interest as a class of solids baving specific optical propenies and to their many important applications. On the former aspect we can cite the fundamental edge absorption and its assignment to direct or indirect transitions, many-body effects as revealed by exciton formation and photoconductivity. On the latter aspect, large-scale applications sucb as LEDs and lasers, photovoltaic converters, photodetectors, electro-optics and non-linear optic devices, come to mind. The eighties saw a revitalization of the whole field due to the advent of heterostructures of lower-dimensionality, mainly two-dimensional quantum wells, which through their enhanced photon-matter interaction yielded new devices with unsurpassed performance. Although many of the basic phenomena were evidenced through the seventies, it was this impact on applications which in turn led to such a massive investment in fabrication tools, thanks to which many new structures and materials were studied, yielding funher advances in fundamental physics.

In this volume, six review articles which cover a broad range of topics of current interest in modern optics are included. The first article by S. Saltiel, A.A. Sukhorukov and Y.S. Kivshar presents an overview of various types of parametric interactions in nonlinear optics which are associated with simultaneous phase-matching of several optical processes in quadratic non-linear media, the so-called multi-step parametric interactions. The second article by H.E. Tureci, H.G.L. Schwefel, Ph. Jacquod and A.D. Stone reviews the progress that has been made in recent years in the understanding of modes in wave-chaotic systems. The next article by C.P. Search and P. Meystre reviews some important recent developments in non-linear optics and in quantum optics. The fourth article by E. Hasman, G. Biener, A. Niv and V. Kleiner discusses space-variant polarization manipulation. The article reviews both theoretical analysis and experimental techniques. The article which follows, by A.S. Desyatnikov, L. Torner and Y.S. Kivshar presents an overview of recent researches on optical vortices and phase singularities of electromagnetic waves in different types of non-linear media, with emphasis on the properties of vortex solitons. The concluding article by K. Iwata presents a review of imaging techniques with X-rays and visible light in which phase of the radiation that penetrates through a transparent object plays an important part.

Assembling an international team of experts, this book reports on the progress in the rapidly growing field of monolithic micro- and nanoresonators. The book opens with a chapter on photonic crystal-based resonators (nanocavities). It goes on to describe resonators in which the closed trajectories of light are supported by any variety of total internal reflection in curved and polygonal transparent dielectric structures. The book also covers distributed feedback microresonators for slow light, controllable dispersion, and enhanced nonlinearity. A portion of coverage is dedicated to the unique properties of resonators, which are extremely efficient tools when conducting multiple applications.

This book presents a comprehensive account of the recent advances and research in optical fiber technology. It covers a broad spectrum of topics in special areas of optical fiber technology. The book highlights the development of fiber lasers, optical fiber applications in medical, imaging, spectroscopy and measurement, new optical fibers and sensors. This is an essential reference for researchers working in optical fiber researches and for industrial users who need to be aware of current developments in fiber lasers, sensors and other optical fiber applications.