Lasers for Scientists and Engineers

Since the invention of the laser, the variety of lasers and their uses have grown at a phenomenal rate. Scientists and engineers have at their disposal an enormous array of sophisticated laser equipments with the possibility of carrying out experiments that were inconceivable only a few decades ago. Lasers for Scientists and Engineers is a grand and glorious book that discusses the principles of laser operation and the details of how selected lasers operate.

This book is short and easy to read, enabling the reader to thoroughly grasp the subject, with discussions that begin at an elementary level and lead to a complete understanding of lasers. This book is suitable for a one semester college course for upper-level undergraduate or first year graduate level students in physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and the various fields of engineering. The background needed for this book would be junior level courses in optics and modern physics including elementary quantum mechanics.

Contents:

• An Introduction to Lasers
• Stimulated Emission
• The Criterion for Laser Action
• Line Shapes
• Saturation
• Laser Photon Densities
• Laser Optical Cavities
• Diode Lasers
• Solid State Impurity Ion Lasers
• The Helium-Neon Laser
• Gas Lasers
• Tunable Lasers
• Nonlinear Optics
• Topics in Quantum Optics