Our understanding of subatomic particles developed over many years, although a clear picture of the different particles, their interactions and their inter-relationships only emerged in the latter part of the twentieth century. The first «subatomic particles» to be investigated were those which exhibit readily observable macroscopic behavior, specifically these are the photon, which we observe as light and the electron, which is manifested as electricity. The true nature of these particles,...
The first part of this book overviews the physics of lasers and describes some of the more common types of lasers and their applications. Applications of lasers include CD/DVD players, laser printers and fiber optic communication devices. Part II of this book describes the phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation. The experimental techniques used to create a Bose-Einstein condensate provide an interesting and unconventional application of lasers; that is, the cooling and confinement of a...
The transport of electric charge through most materials is well described in terms of their electronic band structure. The present book deals with two cases where the charge transport in a solid is not described by the simple band structure picture of the solid. These cases are related to the phenomena of the quantum Hall effect and superconductivity. Part I of this book deals with the quantum Hall effect, which is a consequence of the behavior of electrons in solids when they are constrained...
