Tunable Micro-optics

  • Hans Zappe &
  • Claudia Deppé
CAMBRIDGE UNIV. PRESS 473 £110.00

This book provides a comprehensive survey of a wide range of topics in optics. The chapters cover cutting-edge materials, devices and subsystems, including soft matter, artificial muscles, tunable lenses and apertures, photonic crystals, and complete tunable imagers. Special contributions discuss micro-optical characterization, scanners and the use of natural eye models as inspiration for new concepts in advanced optics. The book combines wider research in micro-optics from the international community with findings collected from a six-year programme focused on tunable micro-optics funded by the German Research Foundation. It is an essential resource for engineers in industry and academia, and advanced students working on optical systems design.

Wave Optics

  • Subhasish Dutta Gupta,
  • Nirmalya Ghosh &
  • Ayan Banerjee
CRC PRESS 357 pp. US$89.95

This volume combines classical optics with some of the latest developments in the field, covering the fundamentals of wave optics, such as oscillations, scalar and vector waves, reflection and refraction, polarization, interference and diffraction, and rays and beams. It focuses on concepts related to advances in negative materials and super-resolution imaging, reflectionless potentials, plasmonics, the spin–orbit interaction, optical tweezers, Pendry lensing, and more. MATLAB codes are also included for specific research problems, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at computational practices as well as an opportunity to extend the research.

Quantum Confined Laser Devices

  • Peter Blood
OXFORD UNIV. PRESS 432 pp. US$59.95

The fundamental optical gain and carrier recombination processes in quantum wells and quantum dots are covered in this book. It includes descriptions of common device structures and provides an understanding of their operating characteristics. It examines both quantum dot and quantum well structures taking full account of their dimensionality, providing a complete account of contemporary quantum confined laser diodes. It includes plenty of illustrations from both model calculations and experimental observations. Furthermore, there are numerous exercises to allow readers to get a feel for values of key parameters and practice calculating quantitative results from equations.

Optical Tweezers

  • Philip Jones,
  • Onofrio Maragó &
  • Giovanni Volpe
CAMBRIDGE UNIV. PRESS 561 pp. £49.99

This text combines state-of-the-art research with a strong pedagogical approach, providing a detailed and complete guide to the theory, practice and applications of optical tweezers. In-depth derivation of the theory of optical trapping and numerical modelling of optical forces are supported by a complete step-by-step design and construction guide for building optical tweezers, with detailed tutorials on collecting and analysing data. Comprehensive reviews of research on optical tweezers in fields ranging from cell biology to quantum physics are also included. Applications of optical tweezers in, for example, single-molecule biophysics, spectroscopy, optofluidics and lab on a chip, microchemistry, plasmonics, and in laser cooling and trapping of atoms are also discussed. The text is supplemented by www.opticaltweezers.org — a forum for discussion and a source of additional material including free-to-download, customizable research-grade software (optical tweezers software; OTS) for the calculation of optical forces, digital video microscopy, and calibrations of optical tweezers and holographic optical tweezers.

Laser Experiments for Chemistry and Physics

  • Robert N. Compton &
  • Michael A. Duncan
OXFORD UNIV. PRESS 416 pp. US$59.95

The characteristics and operation principles of lasers are introduced through laboratory experiments designed for the undergraduate curricula in chemistry and physics. Introductory chapters describe the properties of light, the history of laser invention, the atomic, molecular and optical principles behind how lasers work, and the kinds of laser available today. Other chapters include the basic theory of spectroscopy and computational chemistry used to interpret laser experiments. Experiments range from simple in-class demonstrations to more elaborate configurations for advanced students. Each chapter includes a historical and theoretical background, as well as suggestions to vary the prescribed experiments. The text will be useful for undergraduate students in advanced lab classes, for instructors designing these classes, or for graduate students beginning a career in laser science.