The Primary Scope Of This Text-Book Covers The Transmission As Well As Reflection Optics Of Minerals And The Methods Of Their Studies. To Explain The Optical Behaviour Of Minerals, Some Relevant Concepts In Spectroscopy Have Been Introduced. This Book Fills The Need Of The Students To A Better Understanding Of The Physical Nature Of Minerals Through Studies In Ir-Visible-X-Ray Region.This Book Contains Seven Chapters Titled As: General Optics: Interactions Of Light With Matter, Study In Polarised Light, Optical (Absorption) Sepctroscopic Studies Of Minerals, Reflection Optics, Reflection Spectroscopy, Vibrational Spectroscopy: Infrared And Raman - An Outline, X-Ray Optics. It Also Offers As Appendices The Transmission, Reflection Properties And X-Ray Data Of Minerals.This Is The Only Book That Lucidly Introduces The Principles Of Modern Methods Of Mineral Optics In A Single Volume For The Students Of Graduate And Post-Graduate Levels.

This book gives an up-to-date treatment of the optics of minerals, from visible to hard X-ray wavelengths - and is the only text/reference to provide all fundamental, as well as applied, aspects related to the structure and symmetry of minerals, along with their optical and optical-absorption spectroscopic properties.

Apatite-type minerals and their synthetic analogues are of interest of many industrial branches and scientific disciplines including material sciences, chemical industry, agriculture, geology, medicine and dentistry. This book provides a basic overview of general knowledges of this topic in order to provide the comprehensive survey from a scientific and technological perspective. The book is divided into 10 chapters, which are devoted to the structure and properties of minerals from the supergroup of apatite, experimental techniques of preparation and characterization of synthetic analogues of apatite minerals, substitution in the structure of apatite as well as utilization of these materials in wide range of common and special advanced applications in industry, material sciences and research. Additionally, the phosphate rocks, their classification, geological role, mining and beneficiation of phosphate ore, production of elemental phosphorus, phosphoric acid and fertilizers are also described. Although this book is meant for chemist, material scientist and research engineers, the individual chapters contain theoretical background, historical aspects as well as examples of synthetic and analytical methods which may be also interesting for students and non-expert readers as well.

This book covers the entire spectrum of mineralogy and consolidates its applications in different fields. Part I starts with the very basic concept of mineralogy describing in detail the implications of the various aspects of mineral chemistry, crystallographic structures and their effects producing different mineral properties. Part II of the book describes different aspects of mineralogy like geothermobarometry, mineral thermodynamics and phase diagrams, mineral exploration and analysis, and marine minerals. Finally Part III handles the applications in industrial, medicinal and environmental mineralogy along with precious and semiprecious stone studies. The various analytical techniques and their significance in handling specific types of mineralogical problems are also covered.

Significant achievements have been made at the cross-roads of physics and planetary science. In the second half of the twentieth century, the discipline of planetary sciences has witnessed three major episodes which have revolutionized its approach and content: (i) the plate-tectonic theory, (ii) human landing and discoveries in planetary astronomy and (iii) the extraordinary technical advancement in high P-T studies, which have been abetted by a vast improvement in computational methods. Using these new computational methods, such as first principles including ab initio models, calculations have been made for the electronic structure, bonding, thermal EOS, elasticity, melting, thermal conductivity and diffusivity. In this monograph, the boundaries of the definitions of a petrologist, geochemist, geophysicist or a mineralogist have been willfully eliminated to bring them all under the spectrum of "high-pressure geochemistry" when they deal with any material (quintessentially a chemical assemblage) - terrestrial or extraterrestrial - under the conditions of high-pressure and temperature. Thus, a petrologist using a spectrometer or any instrument for high-pressure studies of a rock or a mineral, or a geochemist using them for chemical synthesis and characterization, is better categorized as a "high-pressure geochemist" rather than any other kind of disciplinarian.The contents of this monograph bring together, under one cover, apparently disparate disciplines like solid-earth geophysics and geochemistry as well as material science and condensed-matter physics to present a thorough overview of high pressure geochemistry. Indeed, such interdisciplinary activities led to the discovery of new phenomena such as high P-T behaviour in metal oxides (e.g. Mott transition), novel transitions such as amorphization, changes in order-disorder in crystals and the anomalous properties of oxide melts.

Spectroscopic Methods in Mineralogy and Material Science covers significant advances in the technological aspects and applications of spectroscopic and microscopic techniques used in the Earth and Materials Sciences. The current volume compliments the now classic Volume 18, Spectroscopic Methods in Mineralogy and Geology, which became an essential resource to many scientists and educators for the past two decades. This volume updates techniques covered in Volume 18, and introduces new techniques available for probing the secrets of Earth materials, such as X-ray Raman and Brillouin spectroscopy. Other important topics including Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) are also covered.