Optical microscopy and associated technologies have advanced rapidly along with laser technology. These techniques have stimulated further development of the optical imaging theory, including 3-dimensional microscopy imaging theory, the theory of imaging with ultrashort pulsed beam illumination and the aberration theory for high numerical-aperture objectives. This book introduces these new theories in modern optical microscopy, providing comparisons with classical imaging as appropriate.

Advanced spectroscopic techniques allow the probing of very small systems and very fast phenomena, conditions that can be considered "extreme" at the present status of our experimentation and knowledge. Quantum dots, nanocrystals and single molecules are examples of the former and events on the femtosecond scale examples of the latter. The purpose of this book is to examine the realm of phenomena of such extreme type and the techniques that permit their investigations. Each author has developed a coherent section of the program starting at a somewhat fundamental level and ultimately reaching the frontier of knowledge in the field in a systematic and didactic fashion. The formal lectures are complemented by additional seminars.

Annotation This text on contemporary optical systems is intended for optical researchers and engineers, graduate students and optical microscopists in the biological and biomedical sciences. In three sections, the book discusses high-aperture optical systems, nonlinear optical techniques, and various techniques that are finding new applications. The new second edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded to account for new advances in fluorescence imaging and diffractive optical lenses.

With chapters written by pioneering experts in various optical techniques, this comprehensive reference provides detailed descriptions of basic and advanced optical techniques commonly used to study materials, from the simple to the complex. It explains how to use the techniques to acquire, analyze, and interpret data for gaining insight into ma