Multiband and impurity effects in infrared and optical spectra of MgB2

A short review of the optical and far-infrared measurements on MgB2 is given. Multiband and multigap effects are analyzed by comparing optical properties with other experiments and ab initio calculations. The covered topics are: the plasma frequency, electron–phonon interaction, impurity scattering, the effects of C and Al substitution, interband transitions and the far-infrared signatures of the superconducting gaps.