“Editor/author Righini (emer., Institute of Applied Physics, Florence) provides a historical context for development of glass micro- and nanospheres in his brief introduction, followed by detailed and current overviews of their applications, presented in eight chapters, each coauthored with a different research group. The chapters cover theoretical concepts and a wide range of applications. These include technologies as common as glass beads for signals and road marking, and as “high tech” as whispering-gallery mode resonators or sensors for biomarker detection. Each chapter provides its own reference section, while the common index allows readers to quickly locate information about a specific topic throughout the book. Overall the text is well written and the print quality is high. The text is rich in formulas and equations.”
~Choice
“The editor and his collaborating authors have written a state-of-the-art reference on micro- and nanospheres with applications in physics. This useful book should be of interest to graduate students in physics, optics and biomedical engineering as well as researchers involved with nanotechnology. Beyond an introduction to whispering-gallery modes (WGMs), which are necessary for light coupling in glass microspheres as optical resonators, the reader can easily progress to applications in high-resolution biosensing for detecting molecules, viruses and biomarkers. Application-oriented readers will also benefit from a chapter on optical WGM micro-resonators applied to microwaves and millimeter waves, as well as from sections on energy applications of glass microspheres that address hydrogen storage and targets for nuclear fusion. Additional topics include optical frequency conversion in microspheres, like third-order sum–frequency generation and chemical synthesis of dielectric nanospheres, such as gold silica nanospheres for artificial opals as well as coatings for sensing applications. Furthermore, the development of microsphere lasers, glass beads and ball lenses should attract a wide readership.”
~Optics & Photonics News
"Edited by a true thought leader in the field, this volume gives an authoritative and up-to-date survey of both theory and applications of glass micro- and nanospheres. Topics include whispering-gallery micro-resonators, photonic crystals, core–shell structures, biomedical sensing, nonlinear optics, as well as microwave and millimeter-wave generation. It will be useful to both graduate students and practicing researchers in mesophotonics."
~Prof. Glenn D. Boreman, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
"This book will undoubtedly be of great interest to scientists and engineers working in the fields of microphotonics and glass materials. The excellent review and in-depth analysis of results described in this book (from very recent to those obtained long ago) will be useful for experienced scientists and graduate students aspiring to work in the fields of physics, chemistry, and biology, and looking for new applications in these research areas. It is a valuable resource for all those working or interested in the emerging field of glass microresonators."
~Prof. Misha Sumetsky, Aston University, UK
“This is a new book aimed at graduate students who need fundamentals in understanding photonics of glass micro- and nanospheres. Fundamental physics in this area involves good understanding of whispering-gallery modes as well as their formation and characteristics. It may be thought that this is just another book on photonics in which Maxwell’s equations are solved under various conditions and that various potential and interesting applications are added on. The book does, indeed, do that, and much more, but it does so in a very effective and clear fashion, maintaining logical flow from the first to the last chapter. Usually, the main problem with edited books is that it ends up being a disparate collection of chapters stitched together to seemingly resemble a scholarly work in a particular field. But this book, even though its chapters have been written by different authors (though many of them are common among chapters), looks, feels and reads like a coherent piece of scholarly work. There is no doubt that the editor has done his job most conscientiously, ensuring flow, consistency and readability. Most chapters have common authors, which explains the reason the book does exceptionally well in telling a coherent scientific narrative, which many such books miss. What I loved about it is the experimental pathways (with good references), the synthesis dimension, and numerous examples the authors have found in illustrating various phenomena. There are explanations, with clear color diagrams, on how various devices can be fabricated. Again, such details are very useful for graduate students inasmuch as most similar books do not go into material and fabrication details of devices. From the title, you will not be able to tell that the book discusses photonic crystals, but it does; and the treatment is perfect for graduate students. . The book does an exceptional job in introducing the fundamentals and building on them towards advanced concepts and applications. For example, even with a straightforward topic such as diffraction, the starting point is the fundamentals, which are then developed into diffraction from photonic crystals, using as an example a periodic array of dielectric nanospheres such as in artificial opals. There are eight chapters, starting with fundamentals, ‘Glass Microspheres as Optical Resonators’ (Chapter 1), and ending with Chapter 8 on ‘Applications of Glass Micro- and Nanospheres,’ over some 343 pages. Chapter 5 on ‘Biomedical Sensing Applications of Microspherical Resonators’ is not only an extremely useful chapter but also very clearly written and illustrated (with color diagrams). Overall, I’d be recommending the library to add this book to its collection.”
~Prof. Safa Kasap, University of Saskatchewan, Canada