ABSTRACT
In an everyday experience, this simply means looking at a light emitting object or looking at an object in a reflected light. In physical sciences, where we are dealing with objects such as particles, atoms, molecules and their ensembles, etc. research techniques based on the second type are often referred to as scattering methods. Sometimes they are applied to study "bulk" properties oflarge objects (radar techniques would be a good example). Most often, however, particles, or radiation is carefully chosen with the aim to explore particular microscopic characteristics of condensed matter. Such radiation then plays the role of a probe that is brought into interaction with the specimen, and this in turn results in a change of the states of the probe and the specimen alike.
