Giuseppe Palumbo & Riccardo Pratesi 
Lasers and Current Optical Techniques in Biology 

The introduction of innovative light sources, fibre laser sources and light emitting diodes, is opening unexpected perspectives into optical techniques and is promising new exciting applications in the field of biomedicine. Lasers and Current Optical Techniques in Biology aims to provide an overview of light sources, together with an extensive and authoritative description of the optical techniques in bio-medicine. This book is designed to give biomedical researchers a strong feel for the capability of physical approaches, promote new interdisciplinary interests and persuade more practitioners to take advantage of optical techniques. Current developments in a variety of optical techniques, including Near-Infra Red Spectroscopy, and traditional and advanced fluorescence techniques are covered, ranging from those that are becoming common practice to those that need much more experimentation before they can be accepted as real breakthroughs. Further topics include optical coherence tomography and its variations, polarised light imaging and, principle laser and lamp sources- a usually fragmentary topic, often dispersed among specialist publications. The wide range of topics covered make Lasers and Current Optical Techniques in Biology of interest to a diverse range of scientific communities.

Table of Content

Part I: Lasers and Lamps; Gas State Lasers; Liquid State Lasers; Solid State Lasers; Semiconductor Lasers; Diode Pumped Solid State Lasers; Incoherent Light Sources; Solid State Lamps; Fibre Lasers; Methods for the Generation of Light Pulses: From Milliseconds to Attoseconds; Part II: Spectroscopic and Imaging Techniques; The Autofluorescence Spectroscopy of Cells and Tissue as a Tool for Biomedical Diagnosis; Reflectance and Transmittance Spectroscopy; Fluorescence Spectroscopy; Part III: Microscopy Techniques; Optical Microscopy; Wide-Field Autofluorescence Microscopy for Imaging of Living Cell; Scanning Probe Microscopy; Confocal and Multiphoton Microscopy; Part IV: Advancing Imaging Techniques and Novel Ultrasensitive Fluorescence Detection Techniques; Optical Coherence Tomography; Laser Optoacoustic Imaging; Polarized Light Imaging; Ultrasensitive Fluorescence Detection at Surfaces: Instrument Development, Surface Chemistry, and Applications in Life Science and Medicine; Subject Index.