Light and its Many Wonders

Ajoy Ghatak did his B.Sc. from Agra College, M.Sc. from University of Delhi and Ph.D. from Cornell University and was a Research Associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He joined lIT Delhi in 1966 where he is currently Visiting Professor of Physics. He is the author of several books, including his texts on OPTICS, Fiber Optics (coauthored with Professor K. Thyagarajan) and on Quantum Mechanics (coauthored with Professor S. Lokanathan). He is a recipient of several awards including the 2008 SPIE Educator award and the 2003 Optical Society of America Esther Hoffman Beller award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to optical science and engineering education; he is also a recipient of the 1979 CSIR S.S. Bhatnagar award, the 16th Khwarizmi International award, the International Commission for Optics Galileo Galilei award and the Indian Physics Association M.M. Chugani award for his research contributions in Fiber Optics. Anirban Pathak is a theoretical physicist. He did his Ph.D. from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, India. Subsequently, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Freie University, Berlin. He joined JIlT, Noida in 2002 and at present he is a Professor of Physics at JIlT. He is actively involved in teaching and research related to several aspects of quantum optics and quantum-information. He is a member of The National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) and several other professional bodies. He is a visiting scientist at Palacky University, Czech Republic. He has recently, written an introductory textbook on Quantum Communication and Computation. V.P. Sharma has been the Founder Director, National Institute of Malaria Research New Delhi. He has published more than 400 scientific papers and has edited many books; he is FNA, FASc, FNASc, FAMS, FTWAS, and Fellow of several other learned societies. He is the recipient of many national and international awards viz., WHO Darling Foundation Prize, ICMR Ambedkar and MOT Iyenger; Green Scientist, Om Prakash Bhasin, Gujar Mal Modi, etc. He is presently NASI’s Distinguished Professor and ICMR Chair in Public Health Research at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He is a Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee.

Foreword • Preface • Message from the President, NASI • Contributors

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: A Leading Light: J.C Bose and Table-top Experimental Science - Rajarshi Roy and Joseph D. Hart
Chapter 3: Light as the Basis of Life - Sukhdev Roy
Chapter 4: What Light tells us about the Universe - Patrick Das Gupta
Chapter 5: Sunlight and Human Health - V.P. Sharma
Chapter 6: Light Therapeutics and Indoor Light Environment - Frederick Marks and Satchidananda Panda
Chapter 7: Light Experiments to Understand Light - Rajpal S. Sirohi
Chapter 8: Simple Interesting Experiments with Photons - Ajoy Ghatak and Anirban Pathak
Chapter 9: Nonlinear Optics: The Good, the Bad and the Esoteric - K. Thyagarajan
Chapter 10: Light and Sight - Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan and Mahalakshmi Ramamurthy
Chapter 11: Light and Vision - Rishi Mohan, Madan Mohan and Indrish Bhatia
Chapter 12: Light and Plant Life - Naini Burman, Akanksha Bhatnagar and Jitendra P Khurana
Chapter 13: Optical Telescope - Rana Khan
Chapter 14: The Sun: Secrets Revealed - Rahul S. Chatterjee
Chapter 15: Lasers and their Applications - Debabrata Goswami
Chapter 16: The Optical Fiber - Ajoy Ghatak
Chapter 17: Trapping of Rainbow in Photonic Crystals and Photonic Crystal Fibers - Shyamal Kumar Bhadra
Chapter 18: Fiber Optic Sensors - Bishnu P. Pal and Parama Pal
Chapter 19: Optical Communication: Flaming Torch to Quantum Communication with Single Photons - Anirban Pathak
Chapter 20: High Speed Communication Using Light. - Raghunath K. Shevgaonkar
Chapter 21: Spectroscopy: The Drama of Light and Matter - Surya N. Thakur
Chapter 22: Applications of Raman Spectroscopy for Public Health - Shiv K. Sharma and Bhavya Sharma
Chapter 23: X-rays Enlighten Life - Yogavel Manickam and Amit Sharma
Chapter 24: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) .. - Khushbu Agarwal and Naranamangalam RJagannathan
Chapter 25: 2-D and 3-D Images: A Simple Narrative - Anurag Sharma
Chapter 26: Holography and its Applications - Rajpal S. Sirohi
Chapter 27: Laser Speckles: Fundamental Properties and Some Applications - Kehar Singh
Chapter 28: Light and Light Based Technologies for a Bright and Sustainable Future - Ram Boojh