Customer Reviews

Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Already for many years, this is a classic on optics. Almost any subject you can think of is covered in this book, in a fundamental way. That is its strength and its weakness: experienced scientists will find everything they need, but for students it is not a good book because it is far too detailed: they will get lost in all the mathematical details before they grasp the essence of the subject.

This problem also exists - to a lesser extent - for professionals who try to use the book to fill in a gap in their knowledge: they too will find themselves asking why they have to read so many (well thought-through) pages before the authors finally make their point.

My advice: use other books to study from, and use this book when you are already experienced and need a high-quality reference work.

A note for scienctists: please mention section numbers when referring to this book in your own publications.

This book is a classic with all problems associated. Half of the reference quoted have been written before the WWII. Very useful if you like to quote original papers. This book cover most topics of the classical optics but hardy cover modern topics.

However, it is hard to read and use a weird notation. Certainly not useful for rapid referencing. Like the bible, use it only when you have serious problem to deal with.

This seventh edition of the famous classic standard book on optics is really neat! The notations, symbols became a little more modern than the previous editions. Also the shapes of the characters in the equations looks much more pretty so it helps reading, understanding. As most of you know, this has everything you need to study about, refer to classical wave optics. The only weak point of this book is the material covering geometrical optics. It's too abstract, mathematical and lacks modern treatment of optical designs, aberrations. But, regarding the wave optics, it's hard to find any flaws, downsides. Even though I am working on micro-photonic elements, I often need to refer to this book for some wave optics principles, knowledges. But this book alone does not cover the whole optics including optical design, photonics. If you want to have the best minimum combination of books covering the basics of the entire optics. I would recommend "Fundamentals of Photonics(Saleh)", "Modern Optical Engineering(Smith)" and this book.

It is just a rare book on physical optics based on Maxwell equations. Rarely a book states the assumptions,the validity of the equations, the principles and how the equations arrived. Certainly, it is a great book for postgraduates and researchers in physical optics not so for undergraduate students who don't want to go through all the mathematics.

It should be on the shelf of every serious optical engineer or scientist. I find myself referring to it at least monthly. What more needs to be said?

It is of course the reference for optics, and is very complete
and rigorous. I didn't learn optics from it, I only use it
as a reference and I suppose that is its function.
It feels a bit oldfashioned (for example, I haven't found
speckel applications in the chapter on coherence) but I
suppose that that is due to the fact that it is a classic.
My other, personal, objection is that I hate Gaussian
units, I prefer by far SI units. Even Jackson finally
conceded to switch to SI units, but Wolf clings on this
Gaussian system.

This is a great book that I have used often. This is a graduate text. You should have had an undergraduate course in optics first. A typical undergraduate text that I recommend is Optics by Eugene Hecht who also wrote the Schaum's Outline for Optics. This being a graduate text you should have taken math for each of the four years of your undergraduate studies. My graduate work is in Microelectronics & Photonics and I use the book now as reference book. This book covers the theory very well; I have not found any other book that even comes close.

Without any doubt, Born and Wolf are still the deepest theory book. Consider this book as the main source for most of other optical books.

This book is the most comprehensive and readable book in all my books collected in optics. I specifically like the chapters devoted to geometrical optics and the rigorous treatment of diffraction. I have do doubt at all in my assignment of five stars to this book. It is no wonder that many of the scientists and engineers in NASA have the book in their possession.

This classical reference in optics has been fittingly updated and enriched. A new edition of this must that should, however, be kept along the classic one. Apart from its historical connotation, the latter will be in fact highly appreciated for its clearer typography.