Optics in Our Time

This book supports the celebration of the 2015 International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies as declared by the Executive Council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The declaration acknowledges the role light and light-based technologies have played in transforming our lives via scientific contributions spanned over thousands of years. The year 2015 is chosen as the Year of Light as it “coincides with the anniversaries of a series of important milestones in the history of the science of light, including the works on optics by Ibn Al-Haytham in 1015, the notion of light as a wave proposed by Fresnel in 1815, the electromagnetic theory of light propagation proposed by Maxwell in 1865, Einstein’s theory of photoelectric effect in 1905, and of the embedding of light in cosmology through general relativity in 1915, the discovery of the cosmic background by Penzias and Wilson and Kao’s achievement concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication both in 1965”.

This volume is divided in four parts: In the first part we have two articles, one on the history on the nature of light and the other on the scientific achievements of Ibn-Haitham (Alhazen) who is considered the father of modern optics. The second part contain articles on the certain sources of light whose discoveries have revolutionized the optical technology in our lifetime. These articles discuss the nature

and the characteristics of Laser, LED’s, and more recent short pulse light sources. In the third part, many applications of optics and light in the present-day world are discussed in several articles. These applications include biophotonics, astronomy, art, optical communication, nanotechnology, solar cells, eye, remote sensing, electron optics, and optical illusions. The last part deals with quantum optics, a modern field that grew out of the interaction of light and matter. The topics include the nature of photon, atom optics, optical tests of the foundation of physics, nonlinear optics, optical cloaking, quantum communication, and coherent atomic effects.

Co-Editors:

Prof. Dr. Mohammad D. Al-Amri
The National Centre for Applied Physics NCAP
King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST)
P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442
Saudi Arabia

Prof. Dr. Mohamed El-Gomati
Electron Optics and nanotechnology
Department of Electronics
University of York, Heslington
York, YO10 5DD, UK

Prof. Dr. M. Suhail Zubairy
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Institute for Quantum Studies
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-4242
USA

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Mohammad Al-Amri received his MSc in Physics with Distinction from Sussex University, UK in 2001. He went on to complete his PhD at York University and was the recipient of the Stott Prize in Physics for the best PhD thesis in 2004. He then joined the National Center for Applied Physics (NCAP) at King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), where he now works as a professor. He was the recipient of the CO/ICTP Gallieno Denardo Award Winner (2013), and Senior Membership in the Optical Society of America (2012). He primarily works in different areas of research related to quantum optics and quantum informatics, where the focus is on quantum optical lithography and microscopy, weak measurement, and direct quantum communication. He has published more than 60 journal papers, including 40 that appeared in the Journal of PRL and PRA, and holds 5 patents. Dr Al-Amri has given many lectures, seminars and invited talks at universities and international conferences.

Mohamed El-Gomati received his BSc degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Tripoli in 1970 and went on to complete an MSc in California and a DPhil from York. He became Professor of Electronics at the University of York in 1997. His research interests are in Surface Science and Electron Optics with particular emphasis on the development of novel instrumentation for nano-scale structure and analysis. In particular, he has been a leading figure in developing instrumentation and image interpretation for Auger electron microscopy, as well as for low and ultra-low voltage electron microscopy. Professor El-Gomati is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and the Royal Microscopical Society. He is the author and co-author of more than 200 articles and patents in these fields. He was awarded an OBE for his services to science in 2012, the Fazlurahman Khan award for science and engineering, 2009 and the Cosslett award of the Microbeam Analysis Society of America in 2009. He is also the Chair of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC).

M. Suhail Zubairy is a University Distinguished Professor of Physics and the holder of the Munnerlyn-Heep Chair in Quantum Optics at the Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1978. He has made pioneering contributions in the fields of quantum computing, laser physics and quantum optics. Prof Zubairy has co-authored two books, one on Quantum Optics and the other on Quantum Computing Devices, and over 350 research papers on a wide variety of research problems relating to theoretical physics. His research has been widely recognised by the physics community and he has won many international awards including the Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics, Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, the George H. W. Bush Award for Excellence in International Research, the Outstanding Physicist Award from the Organization of Islamic Countries, the Abdus Salam Prize in Physics, the International Khwarizmi Award from the President of Iran, and the Orders of Hilal-e-Imtiaz and Sitara-e-Imtiaz from the President of Pakistan. Prof. Zubairy is an elected Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society.