Laser Cooling and Trapping (Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics)

Rating:
Summary: Great book to get a good understanding of laser cooling.
Review: Laser cooling and trapping techniques have given researchers new tools to explore the atom's dynamics and control. The book gives a good introduction to the forces that arise when an atom interacts with a light (laser) field, and puts a lot of emphasis on giving the reader an excellent idea of what's going on when atoms and photons interact.

Rather than giving all the details of the mathematical and quantum mechanics background that is needed to understand the subject the authors concentrate on giving a clearer picture of the real physics involved.

The book starts with a review of the quantum mechanics principles used to understand laser cooling and trapping, which serves as a good remainder for a person who already has a basic grasp of it.

Although all the mathematical analysis that shows how the formulas and mathematical expressions are derived is not done in the book, the presentation is sufficient to guide the readers interested in it do the work by themselves.

The book also has an excellent reference guide that an interested person can use to get all the mathematical and experimental details on the field.