1 comments about Statistical Optics (Wiley Classics Library).

1. Since I'm an optics graduate student beginning my research on image through atmosphere turbulance, I'm eager to find a book of statistic optics which can be both a classical one and easy of self-studying, in fact, I don't want to waste a lot of time jumping from one book to another trying to get the right one for me. One friend of mine introduced this book to me, also because it is written by goodman, whose book "Introduction to Fourier Optics" is one of the best books I've ever read, I did have a try on this book, "Statistical Optics". It's really well written and good organized, I read all through the book, especially on the chapter focus on the theory of partial coherence, imaging with partially coherent light, and atmospheric degradations of images. I obtained not only some basic concepts from it, even got some inspiration for the research work I'm doing. Thank you, Prof. Goodman. Thank you for offering another classical optics textbook to the optics student!

1 comments about Principles of Nano-Optics.

1. Professor Lukas Novotny, a well known Rochester scientist in near field optics, provides a comprehensive overview of the field. The book starts from fundamentals in classical optics (Born and Wolf), electrodynamics (J. D. Jackson), and extends to the frontiers of near field optics. It is comprehensive and in detail. Great for physics, optical engineering students who are interested in this field!

2 comments about Fabrication Methods for Precision Optics (Wiley Series in Pure and Applied Optics).

1. It doesn't get much better than this.

   There aren't many areas left untouched.

   It is written so operator and engineer may read it




2. It doesn't get much better than this.

   There aren't many areas left untouched.

   It is written so operator and engineer may read it

1 comments about Beam: The Race to Make the Laser.

1. I thought that Jeff Hecht's "City of Light" was a better book but the race became better and better when you get further into it. The writing was casual, informative and descriptive and the technical information slowly evolved (not overbearing) as progress was made by the various principals. Yes, it was a science telenovela. However, I think he should have written a Chapter 20 to give a Wikipedia-like roundup or summation of laser theory and applications. I think the author was persuasive on his remarks on Maiman missing out of the Nobel.

1 comments about Introduction to Statistical Optics (Dover Books on Physics).

1. Paraphrasing J.W. Goodman in his Fourier Optics, E.L.O'Neill helped consummate the marriage between communication theory and optics.
   This book is not an introduction. In under 200 pages, It covers geometrical, fourier and statistical optics without patiently deriving the formulae in small steps. It feels to me like a train ride over a long distance, with many stops where the conductor points at important scenes and tells good stories that I did not know before, even for the places I previously visited. For example, page 26-27 talks about contrast reversal in a most direct fashion in real space, much more elucidating than treatments in frequency space only.
   The range of the topics in this book is close to 50% of combined (Warren Smith's Modern Optical Engineering + Joseph Goodman's Fourier Optics & Statistical Optics), the depth is about 80% of that combo, while the thickness is only 10%.

1 comments about Complete Guide to Fiber Optic Cable Systems Installation.

1. I attended a Fiber Optic class taught by Mr. Pearson and found him to be an excellent instructor. This book is written the same way he teaches and is easy to understand. Since I don't build fiber cables on a daily basis I keep this book in front of me when I do build them. If you have never been taught to build fiber cables you can learn how from this book. However, you should note that building good fiber cables takes practice no matter how you learned to build them. Read this book carefully and you can do it.

3 comments about EW 102: A Second Course in Electronic Warfare.

1. This book is the logically titled sequel to EW 101. The style is the same. Namely where very intricate and specialised maths and engineering is deprecated. What Adamy has done is reduce a problem down to the minimum physical model that conveys the essential information. This lets a reader, who might not be an engineer in the electronic warfare field, understand what the various measures and countermeasures are about.
   
   To this ends, there are fascinating instances scattered throughout the text. One nice example concerns a target plane trying to evade a heat seeking missile. The plane releases a flare, that has more infrared energy than itself. The missile then follows the hotter signal and the plane escapes. One countermeasure is to have the missile's sensor measure and compare the energies at two wavelengths. With enough electronics, it can then discriminate between the flare and the cooler target plane, and track the latter. Of course, the engineering required to perform this is nontrivial and probably classified. But the basic physical picture is very simple.
   
   Another useful feature of EW 102 is the appendix. This has answers to problems presented in EW 101. Plus to problems in EW 102. As far as I can ascertain, none of the problems require a computational device more complex than a calculator.



2. While Mr. Adamy may be an expert, apparently these books were thrown together a little quickly. Read the text and all will be well. Follow the example problems in the back and you're headed for a train wreck. When he works the problems they are frought with mistakes, big, blatant mistakes. For someone trying to learn EW the first time these are huge confidence deflators. Find an independent source to check your answers.



3. Mr. Dave Adamy's series, EW 101 and EW 102, are an outstanding collection for the practicing EW professional. Equations and drawings consisely describe the concepts and results from various EW disciplines; radar, communications and satellite are just a few areas that are covered. The second book expands greatly on the area of satellite communications - while not an area normally associated with electronic warfare, satellite communications provide the backbone for many countries social, political and military systems.
   
   If there was one downside to this book it would be the price. While the information within is priceless to the EW wizards in industry, its a bit pricy for the blossoming EW student who has to bite the "over-$100" cost. Find it used if you can, or borrow from a technical library - then decide if it is worth the cost to you.

3 comments about Nanophotonics.

1. Excellent reference book for the contemporary research and development work. I learned alot by reading this book. I actually followed up on the concept of wavelength up converters and down converters.There is a significant potential in these class of materials for use in medical technology, especially scintilation efficincy improvement. By deposition of converter emulsion in front of a scintilator which emits at UV- or near visible (400NM);short wavelnegth scintilation photons can be translated to two longer wavelength photons where semiconductor detectors have two to three times responsivity. therefore, on could use ordinary si-APD to work with NAI, etc. scintilators. i was also impressed by level of detail dedicated to polymers and their potential applications.



2. Excellent reference book for the contemporary research and development work. I learned alot by reading this book. I actually followed up on the concept of wavelength up converters and down converters.There is a significant potential in these class of materials for use in medical technology, especially scintilation efficincy improvement. By deposition of converter emulsion in front of a scintilator which emits at UV- or near visible (400NM);short wavelnegth scintilation photons can be translated to two longer wavelength photons where semiconductor detectors have two to three times responsivity. therefore, on could use ordinary si-APD to work with NAI, etc. scintilators. i was also impressed by level of detail dedicated to polymers and their potential applications



3. I have to agree with the "editorial reviews" above...this is a great book. It provides an excellent introduction to the field of nanophotonics, and covers a wide range of topics. It is not particularly math heavy, nor does it assume knowledge of much jargon, so is suitable for a fairly wide audience (advanced undergraduate or graduate level), but when you need more specific information it sends you to the right places. I find myself returning to it frequently.

4 comments about Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae (Wiley Series in Pure and Applied Optics).

1. This book has a ton of useful information from lighing science to technical color computations. The book (bible) has allot of data charts that can be used for sample or comparision calculations. If you are involved in Optics, Lighting, Illumination, industrial, automotive or aerospace. Then you got to get his book!



2. The book is very complet, but a little difficult. It's the bible of colorimetry!!!



3. I bought this book for my studies in the M.S. Color Science program at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It is a very detailed and math-oriented view of many aspects related to color & color science. I've sometimes heard it referred to as the "Bible" of Color Science.
   
   Bottom line is that it's a great reference book for detailed, mathemetical views of Color Science topics. It's not a very good book to read for general information or an overview on color science. I'd highly recommend "Principles of Color Technology" by Roy Berns as a good all-around 1st book on color science. Much easier and more enjoyable to read. The Wyszecki & Stiles is more of a reference book if you need the next level of detail after that.



4. This 'bible' in the world of Color needs up-dating - - but it is the foundation stone. If you are seriously in the color business, you will need this book on your bookshelf from time to time.

1 comments about Laser Cooling and Trapping (Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics).

1. Laser cooling and trapping techniques have given researchers new tools to explore the atom's dynamics and control. The book gives a good introduction to the forces that arise when an atom interacts with a light (laser) field, and puts a lot of emphasis on giving the reader an excellent idea of what's going on when atoms and photons interact.

   Rather than giving all the details of the mathematical and quantum mechanics background that is needed to understand the subject the authors concentrate on giving a clearer picture of the real physics involved.

   The book starts with a review of the quantum mechanics principles used to understand laser cooling and trapping, which serves as a good remainder for a person who already has a basic grasp of it.

   Although all the mathematical analysis that shows how the formulas and mathematical expressions are derived is not done in the book, the presentation is sufficient to guide the readers interested in it do the work by themselves.

   The book also has an excellent reference guide that an interested person can use to get all the mathematical and experimental details on the field.