George Asimellis
Published: 2019
Total Pages:
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"This third volume of the series Lectures in Optics provides a comprehensive presentation of the Wave Optics effects. The arguments regarding the concept of light, wave or particle, were actually part of the greatest revolution in physics, which, in the early 20th century, bore the modern quantum and atomic optics and, as a byproduct, the laser. Several aspects of optics are strongly dependent on its wave nature. These include polarization (the vectorial nature of light), absorption and dispersion (hailing from the complex nature of the refractive index, as well as the quantum nature of the photon), interference, and diffraction. The latter two are perhaps the greatest manifestations of the wave nature of light. It is often said that interference and diffraction are the two faces of the same coin; they are both manifestations of the wave nature, and provide an excellent demonstration of the power and simplicity of the Fourier Optics concepts. Finally, the book introduces the concepts of laser and its application in a historical as well as in a didactic approach"--