Abstract
Throughout most of this volume, we shall be describing the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter within a macroscopic framework; we shall always be concerned with electric fields whose spatial variation involves length scales very large compared to the size of the atoms and molecules that are the basic constituents of the material of interest. In this regard, we note that in the visible portion of the spectrum, the wavelength of light is roughly 5×10-5 cm, while a typical molecular bond length or crystal lattice constant is3×10-8cm. We may then proceed by studying the solutions of Maxwell’s equations, which have the form
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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Mills, D.L. (1998). Introductory Remarks. In: Nonlinear Optics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58937-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58937-9_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-64182-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-58937-9
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