This book offers a transparent and comprehensive treatment of the physics of tunable laser optics based on a detailed description of first principles. It covers the optics and optical principles needed to build lasers, the optics instrumentation necessary to characterize laser emission, and laser-based optical instrumentation. Containing new and additional material on tunable lasers and quantum optics, this revised, expanded, and improved Second Edition provides valuable insight into the optics and the trade-offs involved in the design and construction of tunable lasers and optical devices.

Introduction to Lasers. Dirac Optics. The Uncertainty Principle in Optics. The Physics of Multiple-Prism Optics. Polarization. Laser Beam Propagation Matrices. Narrow-Linewidth Tunable Laser Oscillators. Nonlinear Optics. Lasers and Their Emission Characteristics. The N-Slit Laser Interferometer: Optical Architecture and Applications. Interferometry. Spectrometry. Physical Constants and Optical Quantities.

F. J. Duarte is a research physicist with Interferometric Optics, Rochester, New York, USA, and an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico, USA. His career as a laser physicist encompasses academia, industry, and the defense establishment. He holds a Ph.D in physics from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, where he was a student of the well-known quantum physicist J. C. Ward. Dr. Duarte is the author of the generalized multiple-prism dispersion theory, has made unique contributions to the physics and architecture of tunable laser oscillators, and pioneered the use of Dirac's quantum notation in interferometry, oscillator physics, and classical optics.