This book is concerned with the underlying science and design of laser materials. It emphasizes the principles of crystal–field engineering and discusses the basic physical concepts that determine laser gain and nonlinear frequency conversion in optical crystals. A concise review of the essential underlying science is presented, and the predictive capabilities of crystal-field engineering are developed to show how modification of the symmetry and composition of optical centres can improve laser performance. Applications of the principles of crystal-field engineering to a variety of optical crystals are also discussed in relation to the performances of laser devices. This book will be of considerable interest to physical, chemical and material scientists and to engineers involved in the science and technology of solid state lasers. It will be used by senior undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as by established scientists.

Low-dimensional semiconductor structures, often referred to as nanocrystals or quantum dots, exhibit fascinating behavior and have a multitude of potential applications, especially in the field of communications. This book examines in detail the optical properties of these structures, giving full coverage of theoretical and experimental results, and discusses their technological applications. The author begins by setting out the basic physics of electron states in crystals (adopting a 'cluster-to-crystal' approach), and goes on to discuss the growth of nanocrystals, absorption and emission of light by nanocrystals, optical nonlinearities, interface effects, and photonic crystals. He illustrates the physical principles with references to actual devices such as novel light-emitters and optical switches.

This book provides a thorough introduction to the interaction of atoms and atomic ions with optical and magnetic fields. Particular emphasis is placed on the wealth of important multilevel effects, where atomic vapours exhibit anisotropic behaviour. As well as covering the classic two-level atom approach to light-atom interactions, a general multi-level formalism is also described in detail, and used to discuss optical pumping, two-dimensional spectroscopy and nonlinear optical dynamics. The final chapter deals with the mechanical effects of light, including the cooling and trapping of atoms. With full theoretical and experimental coverage, and over 250 illustrations, the book will be of great interest to graduate students of laser spectroscopy, quantum electronics and quantum optics, and to researchers in these fields.

The scientific and technological importance of lasers has generated great interest in the field of cavity nonlinear optics. This book provides a thorough description of this subject in terms of modern dynamical systems theory. Throughout, the emphasis is on deriving analytical results and highlighting their physical significance. The early chapters introduce the physical models for active and passive cavities. In later chapters, these are applied to a variety of problems in laser theory, optical bistability and parametric oscillators. Subjects covered include scaling laws, Hopf bifurcations, passive Q-switching, and Turing instabilities. Several of the topics treated cannot be found in other books, including swept control parameter dynamics, laser stability, multimode rate equations, and antiphase dynamics. The book stresses the connections between theoretical work and actual experimental results, and will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics, nonlinear optics, and laser physics.

This 1996 book is a greatly expanded edition of what has become one of the best known introductions to the principles, techniques and applications of optical holography. Where necessary, existing sections have been updated, and two new chapters have been added. After presenting the theory of holographic imaging and the various types of holograms, practical aspects of holography are then covered, as are the production of holograms for display, colour holography and computer generated holograms. A variety of the applications of holography are then discussed in detail, such as high resolution imaging, information storage and processing, vibration analysis, and holographic interferometry. Containing more than 1000 selected references, this book will be invaluable to anyone wishing to learn more about optical holography, as well as to established researchers and engineers in this field.

This comprehensive volume provides a survey of the many innovations in the field of ultrashort pulse generation, and reviews the state of the art in compact, modelocked laser systems, discussing both their operational principles and potential applications. The theory of short optical pulse generation by modelocking is covered in the first chapter. Thereafter, modelocking techniques in different types of lasers are discussed: solid state lasers; diode-pumped lasers; fiber lasers; surface emitting semiconductor lasers; external cavity semiconductor lasers; hybrid soliton pulse sources; and monolithic colliding pulse modelocked diode lasers. Presenting both theoretical and experimental aspects throughout, this book will be invaluable to anyone interested in short pulse laser systems, and particularly to researchers involved in high-speed communications or the investigation of ultrafast phenomena.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory of the interaction between atoms and electromagnetic fields, an area which is central to the investigation of the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics. The first four chapters describe the different forms of the interaction between atoms and radiation fields. The rest of the book deals with how these interactions lead to the formation of dressed states, in the presence of vacuum fluctuations, as well as in the presence of external fields. Also covered are the role of dressed atoms in quantum measurement theory, and the physical interpretation of vacuum radiative effects. Treating a key field on the boundary between quantum optics and quantum electrodynamics, the book will be of great use to graduate students, as well as to established experimentalists and theorists, in either of these areas.

Optical techniques have a huge range of potential applications in signal processing and in the interconnection of digital computing systems. This 1995 book provides a detailed review of the key issues which must be addressed in the design, evaluation and implementation of practical systems for signal processing and optical interconnection. Considerations such as the computer modelling of optical design limitations, the size and noise characteristics of optical modulators, and the relative merits of free-space and guided-wave optical technology in different processing systems, are all discussed in detail. The book will be of great interest to optical researchers and designers, and to anyone wishing to learn about the basic techniques of optical processing.

Calculations on lens systems are often marred by the unjustifiable use of the small-angle approximation. This book describes in detail how the ray and wave pictures of lens behaviour can be combined and developed into a theory capable of dealing with the large angles encountered in real optical systems. A distinct advantage of this approach is that Fourier optics appears naturally, in a form valid for arbitrarily large angles. The book begins with extensive reviews of geometrical optiks, eikonal functions and the theory of wave propagation. The propagation of waves through lenses is then treated by exploiting the close connection between eikonal function theory and the stationary phase approximation. Aberrations are then discussed, and the book concludes with various applications in lens design and analysis, including chapters on laser beam propagation and diffractive optical elements. Throughout, special emphasis is placed on the intrinsic limitations of lens performance. The many practical insights it contains, as well as the exercises with their solutions, will be of interest to graduate students as well as to anyone working in optical design and engineering.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles and applications of semiconductor diode laser arrays. All of the major types of arrays are discussed in detail, including coherent, incoherent, edge- and surface-emitting, horizontal- and vertical-cavity, individually addressed, lattice-matched and strained-layer systems. The initial chapters cover such topics as lasers, amplifiers, external-cavity control, theoretical modelling, and operational dynamics. Spatially incoherent arrays are then described in detail, and the uses of vertical-cavity surface emitter and edge-emitting arrays in parallel optical-signal processing and multi-channel optical recording are discussed. Engineers, established researchers and graduate students studying the properties and applications of such arrays will find this book invaluable.

This book is the first to give a detailed description of the factors and processes which govern the optical properties of ion implanted materials, as well as an overview of the variety of devices which can be produced in this way. Beginning with an overview of the basic physics and practical methods involved in ion implantation, the topics of optical absorption and luminescence are then discussed. A chapter on waveguide analysis then provides the background for a description of particular optical devices, such as waveguide lasers, mirrors, and novel non-linear materials. The book concludes with a survey of the exciting range of potential applications. Combining both theoretical and practical aspects of the subject, the book will be invaluable to graduate students, scientists and engineers in the fields of solid state physics, quantum electronics and materials science.

This 1992 book provides a thorough and systematic description of particle field holography. The use of holography to study very small objects in a dynamic volume is a technique of importance for scientists and engineers across a variety of disciplines for obtaining information about the size, shape and velocity of small objects such as dust particles, fuel droplets, raindrops, pollen, bubbles etc. Professor Vikram has made major contributions to the field, and here provides a coherent, comprehensive and self-contained treatment of the theory, practise and applications. The volume is written to satisfy the needs of researchers in the technique, practising engineers dealing with applications, and advanced students in science or engineering departments. All the necessary mathematical formulations, figures and photographs, experimental procedures and results, and literature citations are therefore included.

This book describes both the theoretical and experimental aspects of optical soliton generation, soliton properties and the application of optical solitons to all-optical high-bit-rate communications. Only temporal optical solitons in fibres are considered. The intention of the book is to provide an overview of our current understanding of optical soliton properties, introducing the subject for the student and reviewing the most recent research. Each chapter has been written by experts, indeed chapters 1 and 2 have been contributed by the pioneers of theoretical and experimental optical soliton research – Dr A. Hasegawa and Dr L. F. Mollenauer respectively. The book will be of importance to graduate students and researchers in optics, optical engineering and communications science, providing a useful introduction for those who are entering the field. It will provide an up-to-date summary of recent research for the expert, who will also find the references to each chapter extremely valuable.

There has recently been a rapid growth of activity in nonlinear optics. Effects such as frequency doubling, stimulated Raman scattering, phase conjugation and solitons are of great interest both for their fundamental properties and their many important applications in science and engineering. It is mainly these applications - especially in telecommunications and information processing - that have stimulated the recent surge of activity. This book is a self contained account of the most important principles of nonlinear optics. Assuming only a familiarity with basic mathematics, the fundamentals of nonlinear optics are fully developed from basic concepts. The essential quantum mechanical apparatus is introduced and explained. In later chapters the underlying ideas are illustrated by discussing particular experimental configurations and materials. This book will be an invaluable introduction to the field for beginning graduates in physics or engineering, and will provide an excellent overview and reference work for active researchers in the field.

Holographic and speckle interferometry are optical techniques which use lasers to make non-contracting field view measurements at a sensitivity of the wavelength of light on optically rough (i.e. non-mirrored) surfaces. They may be used to measure static or dynamic displacements, the shape of objects, and refractive index variations of transparent media. As such, these techniques have been applied to the solution of a wide range of problems in strain and vibrational analysis, non-destructive testing (NDT), component inspection and design analysis and fluid flow visualisation. This book provides a self-contained, unified, theoretical analysis of the basic principles and associated opto-electronic techniques (for example Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry). In addition, a detailed discussion of experimental design and practical application to the solution of physical problems is presented. In this new edition, the authors have taken the opportunity to include a much more coherent description of more than twenty individual case studies that are representative of the main uses to which the techniques are put. The Bibliography has also been brought up to date.