This book summarizes the results of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop
on "Syntheses, Optical Properties, and Applications of Near-Infrared
(NIR) Dyes in High Technology Fields" held at Trest (Czech Republic)
from September 24 to 27, 1997. It was attended by 52 scientists from 16
countries, among them 18 participants from 8 Eastern-Europe. The
Workshop has been stimulated by the great progress that has been made in
utilizing NIR dyes in high technology areas. This has been triggered by
the availability of reliable. vel)' small, and inexpensive laser diodes
emitting in the NIR region which raise the analytical detection limits
by several orders of magnitude, allow time-resolved measurements for
temporal discrimination between spectrally similar species, and make
possible miniaturization as well as remote sensing through space and by
fiber optical techniques. Furthermore, NIR dyes proved to be vel)'
important in other high technology fields such as laser physics, optical
recording techniques, nonlinear optics, biochemistty and medicine.