The Light Fantastic: A Modern Introduction to Classical and Quantum Optics - Softcover

The well designed illustrations, strongly linked to the discussion, the clear definition of terms and the easy to follow derivations of key equations make this an excellent choice for a graduate optics course. It is also an appropriate choice for advanced undergraduates. This highly recommended modern textbook can both explain the principles and applications of modern optics and stimulate creative minds. (Barry R. Masters, Optics and Photonics News)

This book presents a thorough and self-contained introduction to modern optics, covering in full the three components of ray optics, wave optics and quantum optics. Digital cameras, LCD screens, aircraft laser gyroscopes and the optical-fibre-based internet illustrate the penetration of optics into 21st-century life. (CERN Courier)

This book presents a thorough and self-contained introduction to modern optics, covering in full the three components ray optics, wave optics, and quantum optics. The text covers all that would be needed over a comprehensive course in optics at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. Digital cameras, LCD screens, aircraft laser gyroscopes, and the optical fibre-based internet illustrate the penetration of optics in twenty-first century life: these and many more modern applications are presented from first principles.

The self-contained material allows the selection of specific themes grouped in the following way: Paraxial ray optics with matrix methods and aberrations. Interference, coherence and interferometers. Diffraction, spectrometers and Gaussian beams. Fourier optics, holography and information processing. Maxwell's theory; scattering, absorption and dispersion in bulk materials; interface behaviour.
Quantum phenomena, wave-particle duality, uncertainty principle; Schroedinger analysis of spectra, photon properties. Laser principles, He:Ne to MQW lasers, applications. Detectors: photodiodes, photomultipliers, image intensifiers; response, noise and linearlty; CCDs.
Fibre optics, from monomode fibre analysis to dense wavelength division multiplexing; fibre sensors. Photon-atom interactions, optical pumping, cooling and clocks. Second quantization, photon correlations, SPDC, entanglement, tests of quantum mechanics.