The investigation on novel optical materials with unprecedented optical properties is of paramount importance for the development of advanced applications in many fields having a strong impact on our everyday lives such as biomedicine, food and agriculture security, optical communication and information technology, etc. Moreover, the interaction of light with matter in the past decades has allowed the quick growth of new disciplines such as biophotonics, covering all aspects of this interaction with biological materials; nanophotonics, investigating the optical behavior of nanostructures; opto-mechanics, going from optical manipulation of small objects to optical control of micro- and nano-robots.

This book comprises timely contributions from active research groups covering several classes of materials and processes including nano-structured plasmonic and photonic materials, 2-D materials, photo-polymers, liquid crystals, photo-sensitive and opto-thermal, and other specially engineered materials.

Novel Optical Materials will serve as a useful reference for researchers, engineers, and optical and materials scientists in both industry and academia. It is also an excellent supplement and reference for graduate courses in materials science, physics, and optical engineering.

Contents:

• Optical Properties and Emerging Phenomena of Two-Dimensional Materials (Kunyan Zhang, Arpit Jain, Wenjing Wu, Jeewan Ranasinghe, Ziyang Wang, and Shengxi Huang)
• Optothermal Marangoni Effect: Phenomena and Applications (Andrzej Miniewicz, Stanisław Bartkiewicz, Monika Bełej, Katarzyna Grześkiewicz, and Michalina Ślemp)
• Molecular Alignment Patterning Enabled by Novel Photopolymerization with Structured Light and its Optical Applications (Sayuri Hashimoto, Kyohei Hisano, Miho Aizawa, and Atsushi Shishido)
• Nonlinear Optical Propagation in Heliconical Cholesteric Liquid Crystals (Ashot H Gevorgyan and Francesco Simoni)
• Liquid Crystals for Displays, Smart Windows, Tunable Metamaterials, Plasmonic Nanostructures, Micro-ring Resonators, and Ultrafast Laser Manipulations (I C Khoo and T-H Lin)
• Plasmonic-based Biosensors for the Rapid Detection of Harmful Pathogens (Francesca Petronella, Daria Stoia, Yasamin Ziai, Federica Zaccagnini, Viviana Scognamiglio, Dana Maniu, Chiara Rinoldi, Monica Focsan, Amina Antonacci, Filippo Pierini and Luciano De Sio)
• A Double Plasmonic/Photonic Approach for Multilevel Anticounterfeit and Food Safety Applications (Antonio De Luca, Vincenzo Caligiuri, Aniket Patra, Maria P De Santo, Agostino Forestiero, Giuseppe Papuzzo, Dante M Aceti, Giuseppe E Lio, and Riccardo Barberi)
• Laser-Assisted Micromachining and Applications (L Criante, R Ramos-García, and S Bonfadini)
• Novel Photo-sensitive Materials for Microengineering and Energy Harvesting (D Sagnelli, A Vestri, A D'Avino, M Rippa, V Marchesano, F Ratto, A De Girolamo Del Mauro, F Loffredo, F Villani, G Nenna, G Ardila, P Meneroud, J Gauthier, S Duc, M Thomachot, F Claeyssen, and L Petti)

Readership: Graduate students, researchers, engineers, and optical and materials scientists in both industry and academia.

Key Features:

• Comprises timely contributions from active research groups covering several classes of materials and processes including nano-structured plasmonic and photonic materials, 2-D materials, photo-polymers, liquid crystals, photo-sensitive and opto-thermal, and other specially engineered materials
• Includes materials that possess unique physical and optical properties for intense fundamental research and applications
• Useful reference for researchers, engineers, and optical and materials scientists in both industry and academia; also an excellent supplement and reference for graduate courses in materials science, physics, and optical engineering