Electromagnetic Radiation

Abstract

The main part of this textbook deals with spectroscopy utilizing electromagnetic (EM) radiation. Thus, we will first review the most important properties of this particular probe. We will start with the idealized description of a plane wave within Maxwell’s theory and continue with an explicit description of more realistic fields, such as radiation from a dipole and from an arbitrarily accelerated charge. In Sects. 2.3 and 2.4 Fourier transforms are discussed and applied to the important case of radiation from sources with limited emission time. These sections are rather short since the readers should be familiar with such subjects. For those who need a tutorial or a review, a more detailed treatment of the subject can be found in Appendix B.