The International Winter School on Electronic Properties of Conjugated Polymers held March 14-21,1987, in Kirchberg (Austria) was a sequel to a meeting held in Kirchberg two years before on a similar subject. The 1987 winter school was organized in cooperation with the "Bundesministerium fiir Wissenschaft und Forschung" in Austria and the "Bundesministerium fiir Forschung und Technologie" in the Federal Republic of Germany. The basic idea of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for experienced scientists from universities and industry to discuss their most recent re sults and for...

This text is an introductory compilation of basic concepts, methods and applications in the field of spectroscopy. It discusses new radiation sources such as lasers and synchrotrons and describes the linear response together with the basic principles and the technical background for various scattering experiments.