Pure and Applied Optics: Journal of the European Optical Society Part A

An approximate method for calculating the reflection coefficient of stratified media is discussed. An analytic expression is given for the reflection coefficient for a multi-layer antireflecting stack, with elements of arbitrary thickness and oblique illumination.

Institute of Physics Publishing is pleased to announce the merger of two current optics titles, Journal of Optics (formerly Nouvelle Revue d'Optique) and Pure and Applied Optics. The new journal, to be titled Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics, will cover all aspects, both theoretical and experimental, of modern and classical optics. It is intended that this merger will unite the editorial strengths of each journal, eradicate overlap, and create a strong platform for the development of a world-class optics journal.

In conjunction with this merger, Quantum and Semiclassical Optics is to be relaunched under the new title Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics. Journal of Optics, comprising parts A and B, will be an integral part of Institute of Physics Publishing's dedicated optics programme.

A feature of these journals has always been strong European support, and we are delighted to confirm that Journal of Optics will be the official journal of the European Optical Society (EOS). Each title will consist of six bi-monthly issues, published in A4 format, beginning with the first issue of Journal of Optics A in January 1999, and Journal of Optics B in the following month. Subscribers to these journals will receive all the benefits that Institute of Physics Publishing journals offer; full text electronic access including six-year archives, a thirty-year abstract archive and new Hypercite citation linking.

Both titles will begin under new Editorship, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Boccara, Professor Bertolotti and Professor Mandel for their achievements during their respective terms of office. We hope that both journals will continue in the tradition of excellence that has been established through their efforts.

In association with the changes outlined above, all editorial processing will be transferred to the main Institute of Physics Publishing offices. Our special thanks go to Francoise Chavel and Michele Bouchareine at the EOS offices in Paris for their hard work and important contribution over recent years.

All new submissions should therefore be sent directly to:

Publishing Editor Journal of Optics Institute of Physics Publishing Dirac House Temple Back Bristol, BS1 6BE United Kingdom

We are also pleased to introduce electronic submission for both titles. Please refer to Notes for Authors for full details.

It has been quite an experience to act as the Editor of the Journal of the European Optical Society Part A Pure and Applied Optics since it was first launched seven years ago. During that period we have published some 6000 pages and, as my term of office as Editor comes to an end, this may be the appropriate time to review some major trends evidenced by the statistics.

The increase in the number of pages, from 373 in 1992 to 1350 in 1998, denotes a healthy flow of good quality submissions. The European scope of the journal is evidenced by the fact that some 70% of the submitted articles come from Europe, though a slight decrease in this trend which may well be evidence of growing international recognition.

One highlight of the editorial policy has in my view been the early decision to publish a set of topical issues from some selected European meetings devoted to the hottest questions in our field. Combining the attractiveness of the subject with the strict editorial policy of an archival journal has proved an effective way to raise the standard of Pure and Applied Optics.

The next volume of this journal will appear with a new editorial layout and a slightly different title: Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics. A happy marriage with the former Journal of Optics/Nouvelle Revue d'Optique and Pure and Applied Optics leads to these changes. For more details of this merger, see the Publisher's Note in this issue.

The journal in its new guise will continue to be the official journal of the European Optical Society, together with its companion, to be renamed Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics. After seven years, during which I have tried my best to help Pure and Applied Optics to grow, a new Editor will be appointed to whom I give my best wishes for success. I encourage the authors and readers to continue to publish in and subscribe to the journal in its new form, thus helping this European venture to grow.

The quality of a journal depends on the standard of the articles published, and rigorous editorial assessment ensures that only the very best submissions are selected for publication. Implementation of this assessment procedure relies to a large extent on the hard and benevolent works of our anonymous reveiwers: I have capitalized on the scientific expertise of more than 800 referees, who at this stage deserve my gratitude.

Finally I wish to thank my scientific advisor, Professor Patrick Bouchareine, his wife Michele Bouchareine who handled the refereeing process, Françoise Chavel as Administrative Officer of the Journal, all the EOS secretariat and the IoPP office, who greatly helped me in my duties and whose work has been essential for the success of the journal.

Mario Bertolotti

We discuss the possibility of approaching a shot-noise-limited measurement of the difference reflectance due to analyte absorption or adsorption on the surface of a thin film, and estimate the resolution for a variety of cases. When using a 1 mW optical beam, the limit of resolution will commonly correspond to a small or very small fraction of a monolayer of the analyte.

High-resolution compound eyes of the superposition type have been found in some diurnal insects, suggesting high-quality optics. Here we study whether a superposition eye could potentially achieve a higher resolution than that of a single, diffraction-limited facet, like in modern optical instruments made of a number of facets. We have developed a schematic diffractional model of the particularly acute superposition eye of the diurnal lepidopteran agaristid moth Phalaenoides Tristifica, and estimated the amount of aberrations required to fit the experimental data. Our results show that if the ommatidia were perfect (aberration-free) and perfectly aligned towards a common centre O, the resolution of the superposition image would be about 10 times higher than that provided by a single facet, and this in spite of the large phase lags between the pencils of light stemming from neighbouring ommatidia, due to the spherical geometry of the eye. In the insect species taken as a model system here, however, retinal sampling is too coarse to take full advantage of the high spatial frequency content of the superposition image. We show that the experimental data can be fitted if aberrations such as misalignment are introduced. A corollary of these results is that a superposition compound eye which was better constructed and avoided misalignment would provide its host with a better resolution than its `apposition eye counterpart'. This might explain why some diurnal compound eyes such as that of the fast-flying lepidopteran Macroglossum can afford sampling the focal image with a number of rhabdom exceeding the number of ommatidia (Warrant et al 1998 J. Exp. Biol. at press).

By Monte Carlo simulation we investigate the two effects as a result of the specific radiation regime of the cloudy atmosphere caused by multiple light reflection between the clouds and the surface: the increase of solar radiation intensity near the Earth's surface and the decrease of the atmosphere - surface system albedo.