本书是国外比较新的一本光学教材，被国外多所院校指定或推荐作为学生的主要参考书。书中基本覆盖了我国光学课程的主要教学内容，课程体系也和我国光学教学相接近。该书语言生动，讲解清楚，图片丰富，还介绍一些光学领域的最新成果和研究课题。经过国内有经验的教师根据国内教学要求有针对性地改编后，该书更加适合国内的教学实际，具有很强的教学适用性，是一本非常好的双语教学教材
本书可供普通高等学校物理类专业作为双语教学教材使用，也可供其他专业和社会读者参考。
目录
1 A Brief History /l
1 1 Prolegomenon/1
1 2 Inthe Beginning/l
1 3 From the Seventeenth Century/2
1 4 The NIneteenth Centu ry/4
1 5 Twentieth—Centu ry Optics/7
2 Electromagnetic Theory，Photons，and Light/11
2 1 Basic Laws of Electromagnetic Theory/12
2 2 Electromagnetic Waves/21
2 3 Energy and Momentum/25
2 4 Radiation/39
2 5 Light in Bulk Matter/49
2 6 The Elect romagnetic—Photon Spectrum/59
2 7 Quantum Field Theory /66
PROBLEMS/68
3 The Propagation of Light/73
3 1 Introduction/73
3 2 Rayleigh Scattering /73
3 3 Reflection/85
3 4 Refraction /90
3 5 Fermars Principle/97
3 6 The Electromagnetic Approach/105
3 7 Total InternaI Reflection/117
3 8 Optical Properties of Metals/123
3 9 Famlliar Aspects of the Jnteraction Light and Matter/129
3 10 The Stokes Treatment of Reflection and Refraction /134
3 11 Photons．Waves，and Probability/136
PROBLEMS/140
4 Geometrical Optics/149
4 1 Introductory Remarks/149
4 2 Lenses/150
4 3 Stops/177
4 4 Mi rrors/182
4 5 Prisms /197
4 6 Fiberoptics/205
4 7 Optical Systems /216
4 8 Wavefront Shaping /251
4 9 Gravitational Lensing/258
PROBLEMS /260
5 More on Geometrical Optics/270
5 1 Thick Lenses and Lens Systems/270
5 2 Analytical Ray Tracing/275
5 3 Aberrations/282
5 4 GRIN Systems/310
5 5 Concluding Remarks/313
PROBLEMS/314
6 The Superposition of Waves/318
6 1 The Addition of Waves of the Same Frequency/319
6 2 The Addition of Waves of Different Frequency/335
6 3 Anharmonic Periodic Waves/345
6 4 Nonperiodic Waves/353
PROBLEMS/367
7 Interference/372
7 1 Gene ral C0nslderatiOns/373
7 2 Cenditions for Interference/377
7 3 Wavefront—splitting Interferometers/381
7 4 Amplitude—splitting Interferometers/390
7 5 Types and Localization of inte rference Fringes/407
7 6 MultipIe Beam Interference/409
7 7 Applications of Single and Multilayer Films/426
7 8 Applications of Interferometry/428
PROBLEMS/435
8 Diffraction/440
8 1 Preliminary Consideration/440
8 2 Fraunhofer Dlffraction/450
8 3 Fresnel Diffraction /493
8 4 Kirchheft’s Scalar Dlffraction Theory/526
8 5 Boundary DIffraction Wayes/530
PROBLEMS/531
9 Polarization/538
9 1 The Nature of Polarized Light /538
9 2 Polarizers/546
9 3 Dichroism/548
9 4 Birefringence/552
9 5 Scattering and Polarization/565
9 6 Polarization by Reflection/568
9 7 Retarders/573
9 8 CIrcular Polarizers/581
9 9 Polarization of Polychromatic Light/582
9 10 Optical Activity/584
9 11 Induced Optical Effects- Optical Modulators /590
9 12 Liquid C rystals/597
9 13 A Mathematical Description of polarization/601
PROBLEMS/608
10 Fourier Optics/615
10 1 Introduction/615
10 2 Fou rier Transforms/615
10 3 Optical Applications/630
PROBLEMS/665
11 Basics of Coherence Theory/669
11 1 Introduction /669
11 2 Visibility/672
11 3 The Mutual Coherence Function and the Deg ree of Coherence/679
11 4 Coherence and Stellar Inter— ferometry/684
PROBLEMS/69l
12 Modern Optics：Lasers and Other Topics/693
12 1 Lasers and Laserlight/693
12 2 Imagery—The Spatial Distribution of Optical Information / 725
12 3 Holography/745
12 4 Nonlinear Optics /764
PROBLEMS /770
Appendix 1/776
Appendix 2/780
Table 1 /781
Solutions to Selected Problems/787
Bibliography/823
