The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

The nature of light and its interaction with matter

På svenska

Author

Editor

  • Lars Olof Björn

Summary, in English

This chapter provides a physical background to the following ones. It describes the particle and wave properties of light, and the diffraction, polarization, refraction, reflection, and absorption of light, statistics of photon emission and absorption. Planck's law of heat radiation is described in various mathematical and graphical ways. One section is devoted to a simplified description of the propagation of light in absorbing and scattering media. The final sections are devoted to interactions between light and matter: spectra of and energy levels in atoms and molecules, the relation between absorption and emission spectra, the molecular geometry between absorption and emission, and the transfer of electronic energy, including the Förster mechanism, triplet states, and the photobiologically important properties of the dioxygen molecule.

Publishing year

2008

Language

English

Pages

13-39

Publication/Series

Photobiology — The science of life and light, 2nd. ed.

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Keywords

  • light matter

Status

Published

Project

  • Photobiology

Research group

  • Photobiology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 978-0-387-72654-0