Quantum Optics An Introduction: 15 (Oxford Master Series in Physics) Paperback – Illustrated, 22 Jun. 2006

This is an excellent introductory text to quantum optics. It is aimed at undergraduate students with limited mathematical knowledge. The text is clear and concise and provides an excellent introduction to important topics and allows one to get a clear picture, albeit not in detail, of the most important topics. What I particularly appreciated is the ease with which one can follow the author's reasoning and the fact that the text is self-contained, despite the large number of references added for anyone wishing to delve deeper into a particular topic.

This is an excellent introductory text to quantum optics for people with a background in quantum and classical optical physics. It is aimed at physics graduates, although it is also suitable for motivated third year undergraduates looking to get a head start in quantum optics.

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I wish this book had been published when I first started as a grad student! Instead there was Loudon's "The Quantum Theory of Light" and Marlan Scully's "Quantum Optics" - both excellent books, but both lose sight of the fundamental physics, and do not really bridge the gap between most physics degrees and the subtle mathematical world of quantum optics. This is a book which really introduces the subject from a concise fundamental physics footing, taking into account that new grad students are not experts in the field - it is enough work for some students to come to terms with a lot of new mathematics, let alone try and understand where many physical approximations creep in - some quantum optics lectures simply introduce expressions without explanation, and this book seems to answer most of them.A case in point is the quantum treatment of the Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiment, where in the treatement of one of the beamsplitter output ports, a subtraction appears. This book is the only place where I've clearly seen sufficient explanation, in a margin note, that this arises through conservation of energy (actually you are not handed this on a plate, but given a guided problem that shows how it arises, which is a good idea).And here lies the only complaint about the book, that it uses margin notes. It might sound a strange complaint, perhaps its just me being stupid, but if you've spent a few years reading books and papers where you're used to scanning through single column blocks of text for a vital bit of information, your eyes don't immediately notice an off-set, small block of margin text (in small font, so it looks like a figure caption). A few times I've been caught out searching for explanations in the main body of the text, only to realise after much head scratching that its in the margin notes!In all, I find this the best book I've ever read - it makes quantum optics enjoyable, simply because of the grass-roots physics. Not everybody in quantum optics is a theorist, some people actually have to do experiments, which is the hardest part of quantum optics.Thankyou Mark Fox for making Quantum Optics accessible and enjoyable to all!

Nothing,really.I used it in order to get acquainted with a discipline born past my student time.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. FULL OF MISTAKES THAT MAKE YOUR LEARNING A NIGHTMARE. BASICALLY WRITTEN FROM LECTURE NOTES. PROBABLY THE WORST QUANTUM BOOK EVER. BEST TO PUT IT IN THE BOX WITH THE CAT AND POISON AND NEVER OPEN.

This is probably a great introduction to the subject if you already have an honours degree in physics (which I don’t).In some cases the subject was more clearly stated in “The Quantum Theory of Light” by Loudon. Having the two different descriptions of the same thing then helped to try to understand things.I can only give it 3 stars for me, but for somebody studying in that field it may be worth a lot more.