New organic compounds with interesting and improved electronic and photonic properties are being reported on a daily basis, with new light-triggered materials being designed for molecular and bioelectronic devices. The relatively new concept of molecular photonics embraces photochemistry and photophysics, dealing with light-induced changes in materials and their electronic states as well as the field of optics. This volume begins with a background and survey of current light-related research fields, moving on to the fundamentals of molecular photonics. Subsequent chapters deal with the characteristics of photochemical reaction and typical processes of photophysical chemistry, while the last two chapters focus on the study of materials-induced changes in light. The most important concepts are summarized in overview tables to promote active understanding of new topics. .

Photonics is being labelled by many as the technology for the 21st century. Because of the structural flexibility both at the molecular and bulk levels, organic materials are emerging as a very important class of nonlinear optical materials to be used for generating necessary nonlinear optical functions for the technology of photonics. Since the last NATO advanced research workshop on "Polymers for Nonlinear Optics"held in June 1988, at Nice - Sophia Antipolis, France. there has been a tremendous growth of interest worldwide and important development in this field. Significant progress has been made in theoretical modeling, material development, experimental studies and device concepts utilizing organic materials. These important recent developments provided the rationale for organizing the workshop on "Organic Materials for Nonlinear Optics and Photonics" which was held in La Rochelle, France, in August 1990. This proceeding is the outcome of the workshop held in La Rochelle. The objective of the workshop was to bring together scientists and engineers of varied backgrounds working in this field in order to assess the current status of this field by presenting significant recent developments and make recommendations on future directions of research. The workshop was multidisciplinary as it had contributions from chemists, physicists, materials scientists and device engineers. The participants were both from industries and universities. The workshop included plenary lectures by leading international scientists in this field, contributed research papers and a poster session. Panel discussion groups were organized to summarize important developments and to project future directions.

Optical science, engineering, and technology have grown rapidly in the last decade so that today optical engineering has emerged as an important discipline in its own right. This series is devoted to discussing topics in optical engineering at a level that will be useful to those working in the field or attempting to design systems that are based on optical techniques or that have significant optical subsystems.

Symposium M of the 1998 annual meeting of the European Materials Research Society has been devoted to Molecular Photonics for Optical Communications: Materials, Physics and Device Technology. It was held in Strasbourg from 15-19 June, building on the sizable success of the former symposium Molecular Electronics and Photonics, held during the last 1997 E-MRS meeting. A total of 42 oral and 36 poster presentations were delivered at this symposium. A most remarkable common feature to almost all papers presented concerned a very broad approach which was given to this particular field of Materials Science, starting at the borderlines between chemistry and physics, photonics and electronics, from their most fundamental aspects all the way to technology and device engineering considerations. The manuscripts have been gathered in four main areas. First and foremost, we brought together the papers encompassing the growing area of Device Physics and Technology, to reflect the emphasis given during this symposium to the crucial application aspect of this theme of Materials Science. The second chapter presents the most recent advances achieved in the field of Luminescent Structures, which is one of the most active research areas in the field of (macro)molecular-based optoelectronics and lasing materials aiming at the realization of a polymer-based laser diode. The third chapter, demonstrates recent advances in the field of Photonic Structures, whereby the most recent achievements have been brought to the attention of the scientific community, particularly in the realms of photorefractive polymers and nonlinear integrated optics devices. Finally the fourth chapter presents a very basic understanding of Organic Solid State Properties, such as pertain to optically detected magnetic resonance or photo-conductivity studies. Among the foremost conclusions to be drawn from the papers in both oral and poster sessions, the huge progress which has been accomplished towards the fabrication of real devices stands-out as a most noteworthy feature: this clearly signals to the organic community and hopefully much beyond, that molecular materials and associated devices have matured considerably in terms of fabrication technologies, stability and lifetime issues, as well as for the fundamental understanding of their properties.

This volume brings together contributions from world renowned researchers on molecular nonlinear optics. It takes as its impetus work done over the last five years in which newly developed optoelectronic devices havedeepened our understanding of the fundamental physics and chemistry underlying these materials. Organic materials involving thin films, polymers, and resulting devices will be emphasized.

Discusses the basic physical principles underlying the science and technology of nanophotonics, its materials and structures This volume presents nanophotonic structures and Materials. Nanophotonics is photonic science and technology that utilizes light/matter interactions on the nanoscale where researchers are discovering new phenomena and developing techniques that go well beyond what is possible with conventional photonics and electronics.The topics discussed in this volume are: Cavity Photonics; Cold Atoms and Bose-Einstein Condensates; Displays; E-paper; Graphene; Integrated Photonics; Liquid Crystals; Metamaterials; Micro-and Nanostructure Fabrication; Nanomaterials; Nanotubes; Plasmonics; Quantum Dots; Spintronics; Thin Film Optics Comprehensive and accessible coverage of the whole of modern photonics Emphasizes processes and applications that specifically exploit photon attributes of light Deals with the rapidly advancing area of modern optics Chapters are written by top scientists in their field Written for the graduate level student in physical sciences; Industrial and academic researchers in photonics, graduate students in the area; College lecturers, educators, policymakers, consultants, Scientific and technical libraries, government laboratories, NIH.

Targeted at a broad audience ranging from chemists and biochemists to physicists and engineers, this book covers advanced research while being written in an easily understandable language accessible to any interested researcher or graduate student. Following an introduction to the general concepts, the authors go on to discuss devices for processing electrons and electronic energy, memories, logic gates and related systems, and, finally, molecular-scale machines.