Optical sensor technology has reached a level of technological maturity that makes it a promising candidate for applications to specific sensing challenges including those in environmental monitoring, in process control (particularly in biotechnology), in clinical assays where low-cost one-way sensing elements are needed, and in other areas. Optical sensors can be used as fiber optic microsensors, as planar coatings in bioreactors, in microtiterplate format, in disposable single-shot devices, and as planar membranes that can be imaged using sensitive cameras. The spectral range extends from the UV to the infrared, and from absorption to emission and to surface plasmon resonance. Hence, a variety of schemes are conceivable, and this first volume of the Springer Series on Chemical Sensors and Biosensors gives a state-of-the-art description of this highly sophisticated but very promising technology.

Dr. Narayanaswamy is a Reader in Analytical Science at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. He has over 30 years experience in Analytical Chemistry including over 20 years research in Optical Chemical Sensors & Biosensors and instrumentation. He has about 150 publications, majority of which is in the field of optical sensors that include contributions to textbooks. He is member of the permanent steering committee of Europt(r)ode and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Prof. Wolfbeis is professor of analytical and interface chemistry at the university of Regensburg. He has a >20 year experience in optical chemical sensing and biosensing, has authored/edited the first book on the subject in (1991) along with approximately 150 original articles on the subject. He is the chairman of the permanent steering committee of Europt(r)ode (the biannual Eur. conference on optical chemical sensor and biosensors).