Basic Properties of Light and Its Interactions with Matter

Miroslaw Jonasz, Georges R. Fournier

Vlatko Vedral

From Geometry to the Quantum Introduction to Lasers Properties of Light: Blackbody Radiation Interaction of Light with Matter I Basic Optical Processes -- Still Classical More Detailed Principles of Lasers Interaction of Light with Matter II Two Level Systems Field Quantization Interaction of Light with Matter III Some Recent Applications of Quantum Optics Closing Lines Problems and Solutions.

Sajeev John

Since the beginning of scientific inquiry the nature of light has played a vital role in our understanding of the physical world. Physicists have marveled at the dual nature of light as both corpuscle and wave; we have harnessed the remarkable coherent properties of light through the use of lasers; and the quantum mechanics of the interaction of photons with matter continue to provide fascinating avenues of basic research. In essence, any alteration of electromagnetism, the fundamental interaction overning atomic, molecular and condensed matter physics, will lead to fundamentally new phenomena in all these areas.

David W. Ball

J. Trull

Photonics deals with the applications of light in science and technology including a vast number of different topics from engineering to telecommunications, to medicine, computing, metrology, and on and on. The book covers different topics related to the properties of the coherent interaction of light with matter in the frame of classical electrodynamics introducing the basic concepts in this field to undergraduate students and young researchers approaching this field. The contents include a revision of the fundamental properties of light and of the classical theory of light emission and intro-duces the basic equations describing the propagation of light beams and light pulses, including light propagation in uniaxial crystals and diffraction. A list of solved problems is included at the end of each chapter and the bibliography at the end covers both a basic and a more specialized literature for those students likely to go more deeply into the fascinating ideas of this field.