Customer Reviews

Tunable External Cavity Diode Lasers: Tunable Semiconductor Diode Lasers

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The author explains how tunable external cavity diode lasers work, and why they are important. There are many practical uses, from communications to spectroscopy. Plus, having solid state lasers means that these are usually smaller than gas lasers giving the equivalent output. Hence the attraction of diode lasers. While the tunable aspect lets these be used in far more ways than a laser permanently fixed at one frequency.

The book gives good background in the general theory of heterostructure lasers. Like the different types of manufacturing processes, including MOCVD and MBE. While the theoretical designing of the band structure to optimise performance is also discussed. Some quantum mechanics is needed here to follow the narrative.

Unfortunately, the book suffers from being poorly edited. The author's native language appears not to be English. Many sentences are badly phrased. The meanings are clear, at least, but it's awkward to read. The book appears to have had a spell checker run through it. But nothing further. Spell checking usually only works on single words, and not on overall sentence construction. Some combination of the author and the editor dropped the ball.

The book reviews the field of tunable laser diodes and, unfortunately, nothing more. I purchased it to have some literature that helps in designing EC lasers, but the author stops explaining just where it becomes interesting and important. The only thing he does is basically running all the equations which you can find in any other book related to lasers or optics. This is very disappointing. It is really nothing more than a badly written review, which brings me to my next point.

As the other reviewer already suspected, the author's first language is not English. This is generally not a thing that keeps people from writing good books. But in this case, the entire book is written like a first, unrevised draft. Literally, on every page, there are at least 3 or more typos or wording problems, not to mention the weird grammar. It is so serious, that even the understanding suffers while reading, and entire paragraphs have to be read twice to resolve ambiguities. Publishing a book in such a sloppy state requires a lot of nerves. Asking for $82.00 takes even more, especially since it is nothing more than a review. The other thing is that the editor's first language is not English either. This is the last book I bought from World Scientific, and certainly the last from Cunyun Ye. If I ever meet him somewhere, I want my money back. I am really angry.