Ariel Lipson is Senior Physicist at BrightView Systems Ltd, Israel. He has contributed to three successful start-up companies in optics, which have influenced several of the topics discussed in this book. Stephen G. Lipson is Professor of Physics and Electro-optics in the Physics Department of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. He holds the El-Op Chair of Electro-Optics at Technion where he has taught courses in optics both at elementary and advanced levels. Henry Lipson was Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK. He was a pioneer in the development of optical Fourier transform methods for solving problems in X-ray crystallography.

• 1. History of ideas; 2. Waves; 3. Geometrical optics; 4. Fourier theory; 5. Electromagnetic waves; 6. Polarization and anisotropic media; 7. The scalar theory of diffraction; 8. Fraunhofer diffraction and interference; 9. Interferometry; 10. Optical waveguides and modulated media; 11. Coherence; 12. Image formation; 13. The classical theory of dispersion; 14. Quantum optics and lasers; Appendices; Index.

'… a well established and essential text for both undergraduate and graduate physicists … father and son writing in concert have written a scholarly, authoritative and clearly written account of the principles and application of wave theory.' Edward Atkins, Physics Education