This new, updated and enlarged edition of the successful and exceptionally well-structured textbook features new chapters on such hot topics as optical angular momentum, microscopy beyond the resolution limit, metamaterials, femtocombs, and quantum cascade lasers. It provides comprehensive and coherent coverage of fundamental optics, laser physics, and important modern applications, while equally including some traditional aspects for the first time, such as the Collins integral or solid immersion lenses.
Written for newcomers to the topic who will benefit from the author's ability to explain difficult theories and effects in a straightforward and readily comprehensible way.

Dieter Meschede studied physics in several places including Hannover, Cologne, Boulder, and Munich. He has been professor of experimental physics since 1990. At the University of Bonn his current scientific interests are directed towards light-matter interactions at the most elementary level, i.e. with single atoms and single photons for applications in quantum technology.

Preface xix

1 Light Rays 1

2 Wave Optics 29

3 Light Propagation in Matter: Interfaces, Dispersion, and Birefringence 83

4 Light Propagation in Structured Matter 121

5 Optical Images 149

6 Coherence and Interferometry 181

7 Light and Matter 219

8 The Laser 249

9 Laser Dynamics 285

10 Semiconductor Lasers 319

11 Sensors for Light 353

12 Laser Spectroscopy and Laser Cooling 379

13 Coherent LightMatter Interaction 407

14 Photons: An Introduction to Quantum Optics 417

15 Nonlinear Optics I: Optical Mixing Processes 457

16 Nonlinear Optics II: Four-Wave Mixing 485

Problems 495

A Mathematics for Optics 497

B Supplements in Quantum Mechanics 503

Bibliography 507

Index 519