This textbook offers a comprehensive overview of the basic ideas in modern quantum optics, beginning with a review of the whole of optics, and culminating in th... » 

This textbook offers a comprehensive overview of the basic ideas in modern quantum optics, beginning with a review of the whole of optics, and culminating in the quantum description of light. The book emphasizes the phenomenon of interference as the key to understanding the behavior of light, and discusses distinctions between the classical and quantum nature of light. Laser operation is reviewed at great length and many applications are covered, such as laser cooling, Bose condensation and the basics of quantum information and teleportation. «