Optics Essentials: An Interdisciplinary Guide

A Valuable Reference for Understanding Basic Optical Principals

Need a crash course in optics? If you are a non-specialist with little or no knowledge of optical components, systems, or hardware, who suddenly finds it necessary to work with optics in your given field, then Optics Essentials: An Interdisciplinary Guide is the book for you. Aimed at engineers and other interdisciplinary professionals tackling optics-related challenges, this text provides a basic overview of optical principles, concepts, and applications as well as worked examples throughout. It enables readers to gain a basic understanding of optics and sense of optical phenomena, without having to commit to extended periods of study.

Contains MATLAB

The book provides MATLAB simulations to help the reader visualize concepts, includes simple experiments using everyday materials that are readily available to solidify optical principles, and provides worked examples throughout. It contains a set of suggested experiments in each chapter designed to help the reader understand and visualize the basic principles. While this book assumes that the reader has a basic background in mathematics, it does not burden or overwhelm them with complex information or heavy mathematical equations. In addition, while it also briefly discusses advanced topics, readers are directed to the appropriate texts for more detailed study.

Comprised of 11 chapters, this illuminating text:

• Describes light sources, such as lasers, light-emitting diodes, and thermal sources



• Compares various light sources, and photometric and radiometric parameters



• Discusses light detection, including various detector types, such as photon detectors and thermal detectors, and other topics re

Araz Yacoubian is a research scientist with experience in the optics-related fields. He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering-electrophysics from the University of Southern California. His experience includes integrated optics, nonlinear optics, optical image processing, holography, electro-optics, and optical communication. Examples of his work include a demonstration of the first water immersible hologram and its application to contact lens tinting, development of a deployable real-time liquid crystal light valve-based image-processing unit, development of a surface and subsurface detection and imaging system based on a combination of optical/acoustic methods, as well as development of novel broad spectral band detectors and imagers.