Optically Polarized Atoms : Understanding Light-Atom Interactions

An accessible textbook for students and practitioners of atomic, molecular, and optical physics. It will be useful for scientists working with lasers. The book comes with an extensive freely downloadable software package and many colourful and animated illustrations. Additional materials are available for instructors.

Marcis Auzinsh, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Latvia, Latvia,Dmitry Budker, Professor of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, California,Simon Rochester, Graduate Student Researcher, University of California at Berkeley, California, USA

Marcis Auzinsh is the Rector of the University of Latvia, where he was previously Chairman of the Senate, Dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, and Head of Center of Excellence for Basic Research in Nanoscale Physics and Application. He has held visiting positions at universities around the world, and is a Member of Executive Commitee of the European Physical Society.

Dmitry Budker took his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley, where he won the 1994 American Physical Society Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Atomic, Molecular, or Optical Physics. He is now a Professor of Physics there. In 2005 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and in 2009 became a American Physical Society Outstanding Referee.

Simon M. Rochester is a Graduate Student Researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, where he holds a NASA Earth System Science Fellowship.