ABSTRACT
Since the dawn of civilization, gems and glasses have been prized for their transparency, brilliance, and colors. The allure was mainly aesthetic, fueled by the rarity of some of these gems. With the advent of optical communications and computing, the optical properties of glasses and ceramics have become even more important, an importance which cannot be overemphasized. For example, in its 150th anniversary issue devoted to the key technologies for the 21st century, Scientific American288 devoted an article to all-optical networks. Today commercial fiber-optic networks are based on the ability of very thin, cylindrical conduits of glass to transmit information at tens of gigabits289 of information per second. This multigigabit transport of information is fast enough to move an edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica from coast to coast in 1 s! In theory, a fiber can transport 25 terabits of information, an amount sufficient to carry simultaneously all the telephone calls in the United States on Mother's Day (one of the busiest days of the year). t J. Updike, Midpoint and other Poems, A. Knopf, Inc., New York, New York, 1969. Reprinted
All EM radiation will interact with solids in some fashion or other. Understanding the nature of this interaction has been and remains invaluable in deciphering and unlocking the mysteries of matter. For instance, it is arguable, and with good justification, that one of the most important techniques to study the solid state has been X-ray diffraction. Other spectroscopic techniques are as varied as radiation sources and what is being monitored, i.e., reflected, refracted, absorbed rays, etc.
