Clear, comprehensive graduate-level account of basic principles involved in all quantum optical resonance phenomena, hailed in Contemporary Physics as "a valuable contribution to the literature of non-linear optics." 53 illustrations.

Nearly all of this book is taken from an article prepared for a volume of the Encyclopedia of Physics. This article, in turn, is partly based on Dr. Norbert Rosenzweig's translation of an older article on the same subject, written by one of us (H.A.B.) about 25 years ago for the Geiger-Scheel Handbuch der Physik. To the article written last year we have added some Addenda and Errata. These Addenda and Errata refer back to some of the 79 sections of the main text and contain some misprint corrections, additional references and some notes. The aim of this book is two-fold. First, to act as a reference work on calcu lations pertaining to hydrogen-like and helium-like atoms and their comparison with experiments. However, these calculations involve a vast array of approximation methods, mathematical tricks and physical pictures, which are also useful in the application of quantum mechanics to other fields. In many sections we have given more general discussions of the methods and physical ideas than is necessary for the study of the H- and He-atom alone. We hope that this book will thus at least partly fulfill its second aim, namely to be of some use to graduate students who wish to learn "applied quantum mechanics". A basic knowledge of the principles of quantum mechanics, such as given in the early chapters of Schiff's or Bohm's book, is presupposed.

From the reviews: "This is a book that should be found in any physics library. It is extremely useful for all graduate students, Ph.D. students and researchers interested in the quantum physics of light." Optics & Photonics News

This book discusses quantum optics and investigates the quantum properties of interactions between atoms and laser fields. It is divided into three parts. Part I introduces the elementary theory of the interaction between atoms and light. Part II provides a concentrated discussion on the quantum properties of light fields. Part III deals with the quantum dynamic properties of the atoms interacting with laser fields. This book can be used as a text for both graduate and undergraduate students; it will also benefit scientists who are interested in quantum optics and theoretical physics.

Quantum Optics gives a comprehensive coverage of developments in quantum optics over the past twenty years. In the early chapters the formalism of quantum optics is elucidated and the main techniques are introduced. These are applied in the later chapters to problems such as squeezed states of light, resonance fluorescence, laser theory, quantum theory of four-wave mixing, quantum non-demolition measurements, Bell's inequalities, and atom optics. Experimental results are used to illustrate the theory throughout. This yields the most comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of experiment and theory in quantum optics in any textbook.

An in-depth and wide-ranging introduction to the field of quantum optics.