This book is intended for a one-semester course in optics for juniors and seniors in science and engineering; it uses Mathcad scripts to provide a simulated laboratory where students can learn by exploration and discovery instead of passive absorption. The text covers all the standard topics of a traditional optics course, including: geometrical optics and aberration, interference and diffraction, coherence, Maxwells equations, wave guides and propagating modes, blackbody radiation, atomic emission and lasers, optical properties of materials, Fourier transforms and FT spectroscopy, image formation, and holography. It contains step by step derivations of all basic formulas in geometrical, wave and Fourier optics. The basic text is supplemented by over 170 Mathcad files, each suggesting programs to solve a particular problem, and each linked to a topic in or application of optics. The computer files are dynamic, allowing the reader to see instantly the effects of changing parameters in the equations. Students are thus encouraged to ask "what...if" questions to assess the physical implications of the formulas.
From the reviews:
OPTICS AND PHOTONICS NEWS [OCTOBER 2004]
"This book and its companion CD cover geometrical optics, electromagnetic theory, interference, diffraction and coherence theory. Chapters on optical constants, blackbody radiation, emission and absorption, lasers, holography and Fourier transform spectroscopy broaden its scope. The packet contains over 170 MathCAD files linked to specific topics and applications. ... [T]he main virtues of the book are the excellent photographs of basic optical phenomena. ... The index is comprehensive. ... [The book] will certainly be helpful to ... students in an introductory optics course."
THE PHYSICIST (March/April 2004)
"The author has developed a suite of model programs covering the whole spectrum of optics from classical geometric ray to wave and modern optics. Illustrative resonator and waveguide modes are also part of the program mix as well as introductory laser theory. In addition to an optics course, this book would be useful in a 3rd or 4th year electromagnetism course as well as an introduction to lasers and resonators. There are certainly more topics in this text than could possibly be covered in the typical 30 hour one semester course. ... All formulas and diagrams are provided in Adobe .pdf files as well for transcription into other software suites or inclusion in notes. This book is a comprehensive optics text that has been written in a mode to encourage students to run the models, do the calculations and generate their own illustrations. ... The book would serve as an excellent text for undergraduate use and reference for laboratory simulation experiments."
"This book and its companion CD cover geometrical optics, electromagnetic theory, interference, diffraction and coherence theory. ... The packet contains over 170 MathCAD files linked to specific topics and applications. ... this is an interesting and modern approach ... . excellent photographs of basic optical phenomena. ... The book seems aimed at those who do not study optics as their main research area. It will certainly be helpful to them, as well as to students in an introductory optics course." (Dejan Pantelic, opn – Optics & Photonics News, October, 2004)
"Optics is a volume within the Springer series of Undergraduate Texts in Contemporary Physics ... . The choice of MathCad ... as the computational suite allows immediate use of the models directly from the accompanying CD-ROM. ... This book is a comprehensive optics text that has been written in a mode to encourage students ... . a worthwhile addition to the library and where MathCad is available, the book would serve as an excellent text for undergraduate use and reference for laboratory simulation experiments." (John Holdsworth, The Physicist, Vol. 41 (2), 2004)
"The book is a very interesting one ... . It is intended for a course in Optics for juniors and seniors in science and engineering. It uses Mathcad ® scripts to provide a simulated laboratory where students can learn by exploration and discovery. ... The computer files are dynamic, allowing the reader to see instantly the effects of changing parameters in the equations. ... The arrangement of text, applications and files makes the book suitable for ‘self-learning’ ... ." (Yvon Renotte, Physicalia, Vo. 25 (4), 2003)
"Many books on ‘Optics’ have already been published. ‘Optics: learning by computing’ goes a new way: The basic text is supplemented by a CD, with over 170 Mathcad® scripts ... . suitable for self-learning by scientists or engineers who would like to refresh their knowledge of optics. ... I can recommend this book to students as well as to engineers ... . The moderate price as well as the excellent lay-out of the book should help for a wide distribution of this textbook." (S. T. Cook, Optik, Vol. 114 (7), 2003)
