Forms of electromagnetic radiation
 

Visible Radiation
 

Visible light is the most familiar form of electromagnetic radiation and makes up that portion of the spectrum to which the eye is sensitive. This span is very narrow; the frequencies of violet light are only about twice those of red. The corresponding wavelengths extend from 7 10-5 centimetre (red) to 4 10-5 centimetre (violet). The energy of a photon from the centre of the visible spectrum (yellow) is h = 2.2 eV. This is one million times larger than the energy of a photon of a television wave and one billion times larger than that of radio waves in general (see Figure 1)
 

Electromagnetic spectrum. The small visible range (shaded) is shown enlarged at the..)Life on Earth could not exist without visible light, which represents the peak of the Sun's spectrum and close to one-half of all of its radiant energy. Visible light is essential for photosynthesis, which enables plants to produce the carbohydrates and proteins that are the food sources for animals. Coal and oil are sources of energy accumulated from sunlight in plants and microorganisms millions of years ago, and hydroelectric power is extracted from one step of the hydrologic cycle kept in motion by sunlight at the present time.
Considering the importance of visible sunlight for all aspects of terrestrial life, one cannot help being awed by the absorption spectrum of water in Figure 3
Figure 3: The absorption coefficient for liquid water as a function of frequency.. The remarkable transparency of water centred in the narrow regime of visible light, indicated by vertical dashed lines in Figure 3 , is the result of the characteristic distribution of internal energy states of water. Absorption is strong toward the infrared on account of molecular vibrations and intermolecular oscillations. In the ultraviolet region, absorption of radiation is caused by electronic excitations. Light of frequencies having absorption coefficients larger than = 10 cm-1 cannot even reach the retina of the human eye because its constituent liquid consists mainly of water that absorbs such frequencies of light.
Since the 1970s an increasing number of devices have been developed for converting sunlight into electricity. Unlike various conventional energy sources, solar energy does not become depleted by use and does not pollute the environment. Two branches of development may be noted--namely, photothermal and photovoltaic technologies. In photothermal devices, sunlight is used to heat a substance, as, for example, water, to produce steam with which to drive a generator. Photovoltaic devices, on the other hand, convert the energy in sunlight directly to electricity by use of the photovoltaic effect in a semiconductor junction. Solar panels consisting of photovoltaic devices made of gallium arsenide have conversion efficiencies of more than 20 percent and are used to provide electric power in many satellites and space probes. Large-area solar panels can be made with amorphous semiconductors that have conversion efficiencies of about 10 percent. Solar cells have replaced dry cell batteries in some portable electronic instruments, and solar energy power stations of one- to six-megawatts capacity have been built.
The intensity and spectral composition of visible light can be measured and recorded by essentially any process or property that is affected by light. Detectors make use of a photographic process based on silver halide, the photoemission of electrons from metal surfaces, the generation of electric current in a photovoltaic cell, and the increase in electrical conduction in semiconductors.
Glass fibres constitute an effective means of guiding and transmitting light. A beam of light is confined by total internal reflection to travel inside such an optical fibre, whose thickness may be anywhere between one hundredth of a millimetre and a few millimetres. Many thin optical fibres can be combined into bundles to achieve image reproduction. The flexibility of these fibres or fibre bundles permits their use in medicine for optical exploration of internal organs. Optical fibres connecting the continents provide the capability to transmit substantially larger amounts of information than other systems of international telecommunications. Another advantage of optical fibre communication systems is that transmissions cannot easily be intercepted and are not disturbed by lower atmospheric and stratospheric disturbances.
Optical fibres integrated with miniature semiconductor lasers and light-emitting diodes, as well as with light detector arrays and photoelectronic imaging and recording materials, form the building blocks of a new optoelectronics industry. Some familiar commercial products are optoelectronic copying machines, laser printers, compact disc players, FAX machines, optical recording media, and optical disc mass-storage systems of exceedingly high bit density.