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Light scattering in solids
Light scattering in solids
Optics
Edited
W. T. Welford
by M. Cardona
Springer-Verlag,
1975, pp xiii + 339, $38.00
This book is essentially a collection of six review articles, all of them good and some outstanding. Burstein and Pinczuk give a masterly exposition of the fundamentals, pitched to a high theoretical level, while Martin and Falicov follow in similar vein on the topic of resonant scattering. 1 found Klein’s ‘Electronic raman scattering’ rather indigestible, in contrast to Brodsky’s review of amorphous semiconductor scattering, which is easily the most readable chapter, giving a comprehensive survey of the field with minimal mathematics. Pine contributes much the shortest article ~ only 20 pages -- on Brillouin scattering. Shen’s coupled-wave semiclassical treatment of stimulated scattering is the best I have seen. Yet a book should be more than just a ragbag of review articles: from the title and price one has a right to expect a complete and authoritative survey of light scattering in solids. Sadly, one does not get it. The editor admits as much with his very first words, ‘This book is devoted to the problem of inelastic light scattering in semiconductors’(my italics). Even within this more limited scope the coverage is incomplete. Anyone interested in experimental techniques will be disappointed: phase transitions and magnetic excitations hardly get a mention. The title thus appears as a disingeneous attempt to widen the book’s market, all the more reprehensible in that this title already attaches to a conference series. In books of this kind it is the editor’s name which is quoted and remembered. Surely, therefore, he should make a substantial contribution to the text. Here for example, each author skips rapidly through the basic theory, with inevitable overlap and clash. The book would have been much better, and more marketable, if the editor had provided an exhaustive introduction, unifying the different aspects of the subject and setting out a common core of theory - and notation ~ for the specialist chapters to follow. The lack of adequate basics puts the book outside the scope of most research students, so its readership will consist largely of those researchers with a good grounding in quantum mechanics, statistics and lattice dynamics, coupled with some knowledge of quantum theory and group theory. In fact at this price the book can only be aimed at the library market. Finally, two personal gripes to be laid at the editor’s door. Pleased to find a seven-page index I idly turned to InSb, finding seven entries, none of them referring to Shen’s section on spin-flip scattering! It appears that each author has compiled his own index, to his own criteria, and these have been simply jumbled together. When 1 then turned to Klein’s chapter for some insight into spontaneous spin-flip scattering, I came across this statement: ‘We have deliberately excluded scattering by electronic excitations in a magnetic field. This subject is too complex and important to be merely part of an article . . scattering by spin-flips . . . is the most important of these’. Too important to include? Oh, Cardona! W.J. Firth
280
Oxford University Press, 1976, pp 152, fl.95 This is a book written for undergraduate students. The author has been very selective in the material, firstly on the basis that the amount of time devoted to any subject in a University degree course is small, secondly that the material is for students meeting optics at University level for the first time, and thirdly because he has confined himself to material which is either basic to the development of the optics of the visible spectrum or has links with other kinds of optics or other realms of physics. The book has seven chapters and an index. The first four chapters deal with the conventional fundamentals of optics necessary to its understanding. The headings are waves, rays and particles, geometrical optics, propagation of waves, interference and diffraction, and polarization. The remaining three chapters may be classed as instrumental; they cover image-forming instruments, interferometers and spectroscopes, and laser light. Each chapter ends with a set of problems to which numerical answers are supplied. The over-riding impression of this book is simplicity and clarity of expianation which are essential qualities of texts for undergraduates. Although there is little mathematical presentation the concept and use of Fourier-Transform theory is much in evidence. This is a welcome innovation for an elementary text on optics, and those who lack basic knowledge of Fourier Transforms are catered for by a concise appendix in which the main definitions and theorems are given. The book can confidently be recommended but it is hoped that the student will quickly find out that it provides only an introduction to the large and interesting field of optics. H. G. Jerrard
Gasdynamic
lasers: An introduction
J. D. Anderson,
Jr
Academic Press, 1976, pp 180, $17.50 ‘Gasdynamic lasers: An introduction’ is the fifth in a series of Academic Press monographs on the principles and applications of quantum electronics. The book is aimed at students interested in studying an example of interdisciplinary applied science and at professional scientists and engineers who, without previous experience in this area, wish to find out how and why gas dynamic lasers (CDL) work. It is also intended to provide workers in the field with a convenient review and reference source, and includes 93 references to published work up to 1974. An informal style is adopted in the book and the author attempts to orientate the reader by providing a short introduction to each chapter as well as by identifying problems areas and aspects of CDL devices which require further research effort. The book naturally centres on the 10 pm CO2 GDL using C02-N,-H*O/He mixtures since this has been studied the most thoroughly, although an informative chapter on CO devices is included. After a brief introduction which provides a historical perspective, consideration is given to the elementary physics pertinent to laser operation, the
OPTICS AND LASER TECHNOLOGY.
DECEMBER
1976
Optics
Edited
W. T. Welford
by M. Cardona
Springer-Verlag,
1975, pp xiii + 339, $38.00
This book is essentially a collection of six review articles, all of them good and some outstanding. Burstein and Pinczuk give a masterly exposition of the fundamentals, pitched to a high theoretical level, while Martin and Falicov follow in similar vein on the topic of resonant scattering. 1 found Klein’s ‘Electronic raman scattering’ rather indigestible, in contrast to Brodsky’s review of amorphous semiconductor scattering, which is easily the most readable chapter, giving a comprehensive survey of the field with minimal mathematics. Pine contributes much the shortest article ~ only 20 pages -- on Brillouin scattering. Shen’s coupled-wave semiclassical treatment of stimulated scattering is the best I have seen. Yet a book should be more than just a ragbag of review articles: from the title and price one has a right to expect a complete and authoritative survey of light scattering in solids. Sadly, one does not get it. The editor admits as much with his very first words, ‘This book is devoted to the problem of inelastic light scattering in semiconductors’(my italics). Even within this more limited scope the coverage is incomplete. Anyone interested in experimental techniques will be disappointed: phase transitions and magnetic excitations hardly get a mention. The title thus appears as a disingeneous attempt to widen the book’s market, all the more reprehensible in that this title already attaches to a conference series. In books of this kind it is the editor’s name which is quoted and remembered. Surely, therefore, he should make a substantial contribution to the text. Here for example, each author skips rapidly through the basic theory, with inevitable overlap and clash. The book would have been much better, and more marketable, if the editor had provided an exhaustive introduction, unifying the different aspects of the subject and setting out a common core of theory - and notation ~ for the specialist chapters to follow. The lack of adequate basics puts the book outside the scope of most research students, so its readership will consist largely of those researchers with a good grounding in quantum mechanics, statistics and lattice dynamics, coupled with some knowledge of quantum theory and group theory. In fact at this price the book can only be aimed at the library market. Finally, two personal gripes to be laid at the editor’s door. Pleased to find a seven-page index I idly turned to InSb, finding seven entries, none of them referring to Shen’s section on spin-flip scattering! It appears that each author has compiled his own index, to his own criteria, and these have been simply jumbled together. When 1 then turned to Klein’s chapter for some insight into spontaneous spin-flip scattering, I came across this statement: ‘We have deliberately excluded scattering by electronic excitations in a magnetic field. This subject is too complex and important to be merely part of an article . . scattering by spin-flips . . . is the most important of these’. Too important to include? Oh, Cardona! W.J. Firth
280
Oxford University Press, 1976, pp 152, fl.95 This is a book written for undergraduate students. The author has been very selective in the material, firstly on the basis that the amount of time devoted to any subject in a University degree course is small, secondly that the material is for students meeting optics at University level for the first time, and thirdly because he has confined himself to material which is either basic to the development of the optics of the visible spectrum or has links with other kinds of optics or other realms of physics. The book has seven chapters and an index. The first four chapters deal with the conventional fundamentals of optics necessary to its understanding. The headings are waves, rays and particles, geometrical optics, propagation of waves, interference and diffraction, and polarization. The remaining three chapters may be classed as instrumental; they cover image-forming instruments, interferometers and spectroscopes, and laser light. Each chapter ends with a set of problems to which numerical answers are supplied. The over-riding impression of this book is simplicity and clarity of expianation which are essential qualities of texts for undergraduates. Although there is little mathematical presentation the concept and use of Fourier-Transform theory is much in evidence. This is a welcome innovation for an elementary text on optics, and those who lack basic knowledge of Fourier Transforms are catered for by a concise appendix in which the main definitions and theorems are given. The book can confidently be recommended but it is hoped that the student will quickly find out that it provides only an introduction to the large and interesting field of optics. H. G. Jerrard
Gasdynamic
lasers: An introduction
J. D. Anderson,
Jr
Academic Press, 1976, pp 180, $17.50 ‘Gasdynamic lasers: An introduction’ is the fifth in a series of Academic Press monographs on the principles and applications of quantum electronics. The book is aimed at students interested in studying an example of interdisciplinary applied science and at professional scientists and engineers who, without previous experience in this area, wish to find out how and why gas dynamic lasers (CDL) work. It is also intended to provide workers in the field with a convenient review and reference source, and includes 93 references to published work up to 1974. An informal style is adopted in the book and the author attempts to orientate the reader by providing a short introduction to each chapter as well as by identifying problems areas and aspects of CDL devices which require further research effort. The book naturally centres on the 10 pm CO2 GDL using C02-N,-H*O/He mixtures since this has been studied the most thoroughly, although an informative chapter on CO devices is included. After a brief introduction which provides a historical perspective, consideration is given to the elementary physics pertinent to laser operation, the
OPTICS AND LASER TECHNOLOGY.
DECEMBER
1976