The new edition has a bit more emphasis on applications of lasers and on optical physics rather than lasers as such. The basic principles of lasers have of course remained unchanged in the past 20 years, but there has been a shift in the kinds of lasers of greatest interest, and the new book reflects these developments. The level is about the same as the original, but perhaps slightlymore advanced in some of the later chapters. The first six chapters of the new book cover essentially the material in Chapters 1-4, 7, and 10-12 of Lasers,with some significant additions including sections on Polarization and Modulation, Frequency Stabilization, and an expanded section on Amplified Spontaneous Emission. The discussions have been updated where necessary while focusing on the basic physics of the interaction of light with matter and the basic operating principles of lasers. The widely used Pound-Drever-Hall method of frequency stabilization is described in some detail in Chapter 5. Chapter 7 (Laser Resonators and Gaussian Beams) is mostly unchanged, except for some details andelaborations, from Chapter 14 of Lasers. Chapters 14 and 15 (Wave-Particle Duality of Light and Optical Coherence and Lasers) similarly reproduce much of Chapters 9 and 15, respectively, of Lasers, but with an updated treatment of photodetectors and some further topics of historical/pedagogical interest. The new material is contained mainly in Chapters 8-13. Chapter 8 treats dispersion,chirping, modes and characteristics of optical fibers, and birefringence, allimportant in optical communications as well as the physics of ultrashort pulses. Four sections introduce the most important concepts needed to understand the propagation of laser radiation in the turbulent atmosphere; this is a subject of great importance in many applications (e.g., free-space communications and cryptography) but has traditionally been covered only in more advanced andspecialized books. We have attempted to treat this material in a way that will be helpful for students as well as laser scientists/engineers who have not previously been exposed to the subject. Chapter 9 goes beyond Chapters 5 and 9of Lasers to include sections on Electromagnetically Induced Transparency andthe Ramsey technique used in frequency standards and other areas. We have replaced Chapters 17 and 18 of Lasers with a single chapter (Chapter 10, Introduction to Nonlinear Optics). This chapter introduces the basic ideas of nonlinear optics and includes new sections on Self-Phase Modulation and Two-Photon Downconversion. Chapter 11 (Some Specific Lasers and Amplifiers) replaces Chapter13 of Lasers. Discussion of free-electron lasers has been removed while new sections on chirped-pulse amplification and fiber amplifiers have been added. Chapter 12 replaces Chapter 16 of Lasers and is almost entirely new. It includes an expanded and updated section on Lidar, which was treated only briefly in Lasers. A section on Adaptive Optics for Astronomy, a topic of growing interest for correcting the effects of atmospheric turbulence on large ground-based telescopes, has been included, as well as sections dealing with spin-polarized atoms, laser cooling and trapping, atomic clocks, Bose-Einstein condensation, applications of ultrashort pulses (e.g., frequency combs), and a few medical applications. These topics will almost certainly remain important for many years, but are not to our knowledge covered in any existing book at the advanced-undergraduate or beginning-graduate levels. Chapter 13 is an introduction to optical communications based on diode lasers and fibers. To our knowledge thereare no existing textbooks that cover the basic physics of the interaction of light with matter and of lasers while at the same time treating a significant variety of applications of lasers in more than a superficial way, nor are there textbooks that cover as wide a range of topics of general interest.
- ISBN: 978-0-470-38771-9
- Editorial: John Wiley & Sons
- Encuadernacion: Cartoné
- Páginas: 848
- Fecha Publicación: 14/08/2009
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés