A decade of the authors teaching graduate students led to the genesis of this comprehensive yet extremely clearly written book that fills the lacunae of multiple sources on imaging optics. I know of no other single source with a single notation that can substitute for Imaging Optics. This masterful treatise/textbook, replete with clear figures, will become a classic in optics.
With a rigorous foundation of electromagnetic-wave propagation, the authors develop geometric optics, aberrations and optical design with many applications. A detailed analysis of diffraction in optical imaging is developed for the complete vector theory, including consideration of polarization. The vector theory of optical imaging of a point object with high-numerical-aperture microscope objectives is a topic of great utility in microscopy.
There are multiple appendices, including the English translation of V. S. Ignatowsky: Diffraction by a Lens of Arbitrary Aperture (1919), in which the author independently derives the resolution in a microscope that is completely similar to Abbe’s theory of the microscope (1873).
Review by Barry R. Masters, Fellow of AAAS, OSA and SPIE
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or OSA.