Light-matter interaction

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Sep 6, 2017 - Download by: [Singapore University of Technology & Design] ... nanoscale, 2nd edition, Contemporary Physics ... has been the subject of rich scientific enquiry since the fifth ... Griffith's Introduction to Electrodynamics.
Contemporary Physics

ISSN: 0010-7514 (Print) 1366-5812 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tcph20

Light-matter interaction: physics and engineering at the nanoscale, 2nd edition Kelvin J. A. Ooi To cite this article: Kelvin J. A. Ooi (2017): Light-matter interaction: physics and engineering at the nanoscale, 2nd edition, Contemporary Physics To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00107514.2017.1371234

Published online: 06 Sep 2017.

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Date: 06 September 2017, At: 04:09

Contemporary Physics, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1080/00107514.2017.1371234

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Light-matter interaction: physics and engineering at the nanoscale, 2nd edition, by J. Weiner and F. Nunes, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, 432 pp., £37.50 (paperback), ISBN 9780198796671. Scope: textbook. Level: advanced undergraduate, postgraduate, researcher. The nature of light has mystical relations with human culture since the birth of civilisation, often appearing in art, science and religious symbolisms. The interaction of light and matter has been the subject of rich scientific enquiry since the fifth century BC. From the ancient corpuscular theory, to wave theory, and finally evolving to the relativistic and quantum theory of light, the science of light has now progressed to the stage of uncovering the workings behind its interactions with matter at the nanoscale. This over-400 page book stands as a solid instructional text for the study of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. It is most suitable for postgraduates who have gone through a basic optics course. The book starts off with a brief historical overview of the scientific developments of light and matter. The next five chapters serve as a short refresher of basic optics theory, spanning only 100 pages and covers a wide range of topics on classical electrodynamics, physical optics, energy in polarisable matter, charged oscillators and antennas, as well as black-body radiation. Then, the next two chapters talks about surface waves and waveguides, borrowing concepts between circuit and waveguide theory from electronic engineering. The concepts learnt from these two chapters are groundwork to study more advanced nanoscale concepts in the later chapters. The second edition of this book is a heavily expanded version that includes three entirely new chapters (Chapters 9–11) which are dedicated to explore the recent advancements of

nanoscale science. Chapter 9 touches on negative-index metamaterials, using engineering concepts from transmission lines and waveguides to pattern nanostructures on materials that severely alter their optical properties. Chapter 10 is on momentum in fields and matter, how the momentum of light interacts with ponderable media. Chapter 11 explores atomic light-field interactions from the damped harmonic oscillator model. Finally, Chapter 12 closes with the study of radiation in classical and quantal atoms. While the main text consists of 360 pages, the remaining 40-over pages contain a very comprehensive appendix that details the analytical and mathematical tools used to develop the physics and engineering of light-matter interaction. It covers the numerical constants and dimension, unit systems, vector calculus, gradient, divergence and curl, phasors, Laguerre functions, Legendre functions, and Hermite polynomials. As an integral part of the book, the appendix is very well-developed to equip and prepare students to conduct research work. This book is very useful for instructors who want to develop updated postgraduate courses on light at the nanoscale. Readers who are new to optics should read this with a companion textbook on classical electromagnetics, e.g. with Griffith’s Introduction to Electrodynamics. Kelvin J. A. Ooi SUTD-MIT International Design Centre, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore [email protected]   http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9172-1705 © 2017 Kelvin J. A. Ooi https://doi.org/10.1080/00107514.2017.1371234