Fundamentals of Optics and Modern Physics

J. Richard Christman, David Halliday, Robert J. Resnick

Sergei A. Akhmanov, S. Yu. Nikitin

Abstract Based on a course offered at Moscow State University, this text comprehensively presents the fundamentals of modern physical optics. The concepts of classical and quantum radiation theories, nonlinear physics, statistics, and Fourier transformations are shown to form the bedrock of modern optics and optical physics. Subjects include lasers, nonlinear optics, optical spectroscopy, and optical fields. The material is much more topical than that in conventional textbooks, and it provides a picture of physical optics as an expert would see it, but in a form accessible to a student.

Jan Peřina, Z. Hradil, Branislav Jurčo

Michel Le Bellac

Quantum physics allows us to understand the nature of the physical phenomena which govern the behavior of solids, semi-conductors, lasers, atoms, nuclei, subnuclear particles and light. In Quantum Physics, Le Bellac provides a thoroughly modern approach to this fundamental theory. Throughout the book, Le Bellac teaches the fundamentals of quantum physics using an original approach which relies primarily on an algebraic treatment and on the systematic use of symmetry principles. In addition to the standard topics such as one-dimensional potentials, angular momentum and scattering theory, the reader is introduced to more recent developments at an early stage. These include a detailed account of entangled states and their applications, the optical Bloch equations, the theory of laser cooling and of magneto-optical traps, vacuum Rabi oscillations and an introduction to open quantum systems. This is a textbook for a modern course on quantum physics, written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Ksenia Dolgaleva

Aleksei M. Zheltikov

Abstract The Keldysh photoionization theory is a conceptual cornerstone and a universal framework for the description of a broad class of fundamental effects in light–matter interaction. Here, we provide an overview of the Keldysh theory as a significant milestone in the development of modern optical physics and offer a historical perspective on the fundamental role of this theory, from the early pioneering work on quantum tunneling to the latest breakthroughs in laser optics, attosecond technologies, and ultrafast optics of high-intensity laser pulses.