This text covers the range of subjects necessary for the understanding of modern infrared-imaging systems at a level appropriate for seniors or first-year graduate students in physics or electrical engineering. The first six chapters focus on fundamental background issues of radiation detection, beginning with the basics of geometrical optics and finishing with a discussion of the figures of merit used for describing the signal-to-noise performance of a detector system. Other topics include radiometry and flux-transfer issues, basic radiation-detector mechanisms, and random-process...

Optical Radiation Detectors, Eustace L. Dereniak and Devon G. Crowe Offers a comprehensive, integrated treatment of optical radiation detectors, discussing their capabilities and limitations. Background material on radiometry, noise sources, and detector physics is introduced, followed by more detailed discussions of photon detectors, thermal detectors, and charge transfer arrays of detectors.

This new and up-to-date book covers the modern geometrical aspects of optics, which is the fundamental level of understanding the technology. Beginning with how light is generated and how fast it travels, the book discusses how materials interact with light, how various materials affect the velocity of light, and the ramifications of change in the speed of light. The concept of the index of refraction, and how it is used with Snell's law to produce image forming systems, is developed. An ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate level courses in geometrical optics, this book will also...