Lasers, Optics, and Photonics

Aimed at undergraduate and graduate students, this textbook provides an accessible introduction to a wide range of topics in the areas of optics, photonics, and lasers. The book begins by presenting the fundamental concepts relating to geometrical optics, optical instruments and aberrations, radiometry and photometry, wave physics, electromagnetic optics, polarization, interference, diffraction, coherence, holography, and light propagation in anisotropic media. The second part of the book goes on to cover several topics in the areas of photonics and lasers, such as conventional and micro-structured optical fibers, dispersion, optical communications, laser fundamentals, semiconductor lasers, laser beams and laser light, nonlinear optics, all-optical signal processing, optical solitons, fiber amplifiers and lasers, and supercontinuum generation. Finally, the text includes an Appendix dedicated to some optics phenomena and systems in nature. The book also discusses practical applications of key concepts throughout, and includes a set of problems at the end of each chapter to aid learning and solidify understanding. Suitable for students of optics, photonics, lasers, and optical communications, the book will also be a useful reference text for teachers and learners in chemistry, biology, engineering, and medicine courses due to the broad applicability of the field of optics, and will provide a helpful introduction to the field for professionals from diverse backgrounds.

Mário F. S. Ferreira is a Professor in the Physics Department of Aveiro University, Portugal. His research centre around multi-section semiconductor lasers, quantum well lasers, optical fiber amplifiers and lasers, optical sensors, soliton propagation, polarization and nonlinear effects in optical fibers. He is the former leader of the Optics and Optoelectronics Group of the I3N - Institute of Nanostructures, Nanomodelling and Nanofabrication and has written more than 400 scientific journal and conference publications, including several books. He is a Fellow and a Visiting Lecturer with the Optical Society of America and the International Society for Optics and Photonics, and a Member of the IEEE.