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.
