Description:
This introductory text is a reader-friendly treatment of geometrical and physical optics emphasizing problems and solved examples with detailed analysis and helpful commentary. The book covers ray tracing to the wave nature of light, and introduces Maxwell's equations in an organic fashion.
Review Quotes:
"a comprehensive text... at the right level for our students and brings together ideas from other undergraduate courses to explain the basic fundamentals of optics.... There are quite a few helpful worked out examples as well as good homework problems included."
--Matthew M. Waite, West Chester University of PA
"There are a number of introductory/undergraduate optics books in the market...What is different about this book is that the whole gamut of introductory optics can be covered in one semester, as only the basic essentials of each topic are covered. The prerequisites assumed are rather minimal--introductory physics and basic calculus. The appendices cover other requisite math such as complex numbers, volume integrals and matrices. What is surprising (and not usually found in introductory texts) is the rather extensive discussion on calculating the Cornu spiral. Also presented is the appropriate Mathematica code. The other topic not usually encountered is the characteristic-matrix technique for dealing with thin films and layer stacks...The book is ideal either for use in the classroom or for self-study."
--Vengu Lakshminarayanan, University of Waterloo, Canada