Covering a broad range of topics in modern optical physics and engineering, this textbook is invaluable for undergraduate students studying laser physics, optoelectronics, photonics, applied optics and optical engineering. This new edition has been re-organized, and now covers many new topics such as the optics of stratified media, quantum well lasers and modulators, free electron lasers, diode-pumped solid state and gas lasers, imaging and non-imaging optical systems, squeezed light, periodic poling in nonlinear media, very short pulse lasers and new applications of lasers. The textbook gives a detailed introduction to the basic physics and engineering of lasers, as well as covering the design and operational principles of a wide range of optical systems and electro-optic devices. It features full details of important derivations and results, and provides many practical examples of the design, construction and performance characteristics of different types of lasers and electro-optic devices.

'I recommend this textbook because of its pedagogical excellence. The author is an experimentalist and an experienced teacher … In addition to the exceptionally clear writing, the reader is aided by large well-designed figures, key references, problem sets and an index …'

Barry R. Masters Source: Optics and Photonics News

'… if you teach opto-electronics at undergraduate or taught masters level then this should be a serious consideration for your course text. It is well written and well illustrated … and the overall layout and typography is very clear, for which the publishers are to be commended. … a real strength of the book is the detailed consideration given not only to the theory of lasers, resonators and modes but the fairly wide-ranging discussion of a number of important laser systems including dye, chemical and free-electron. … a valuable textbook which I will certainly be recommending to my final year undergraduate and taught masters students.'

Peter R. Hobson Source: Contemporary Physics