Book excerpt: Research and applications in optical engineering require careful selection of materials. With such a large and varied array to choose from, it is important to understand a material's physical and optical properties before making a selection. Providing a convenient, concise, and logically organized collection of information, Physical Properties and Data of Optical Materials builds a thorough background for more than 100 optical materials and offers quick access to precise information. Surveying the most important and widely used optical materials, this handy reference includes data on a wide variety of metals, semiconductors, dielectrics, polymers, and other commonly used optical materials. For each material, the editors examine the crystal system; natural and artificial growth and production methods along with corrosives and processing; thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties; optical properties, such as transmittance and reflectance spectra, ranging from UV to IR wavelengths; and, where applicable, applications for spectroscopy and miscellaneous remarks such as handling concerns and chemical properties. Numerous tables illustrate important data such as numerical values of optical constants for important wavelength regions, extinction and absorption coefficients, and refractive index. Physical Properties and Data of Optical Materials offers a collection of data on an unprecedented variety of fundamental optical materials, making it the one quick-lookup guide that every optical scientist, engineer, and student should own.