A Beginner's Guide to Lasers and Their Applications, Part 2: The Laser's Impact on Science and Humanity

This two-volume book provides an enriching insight into the laser, covering different types of lasers, the basic science behind the technology, their role at the cutting-edge of current scientific research, and their applications in medicine, industry, and the arts. With just high school physics as a prerequisite and favoring qualitative yet scientifically sound explanations over high-level mathematics, this book is aimed at a broad spectrum of readers in physics, chemistry, engineering, medicine, and biology. Its engaging and lucid presentation is enhanced with plenty of illustrations, making the world of the laser accessible to undergraduate students in the sciences and any other inquisitive readers with high school physics under their belts. It is ideal for self-study or as a complement to courses on optics and optoelectronics.

This volume, Part 2 of 2, begins with a brief review of laser science and depicts the many advances in science enabled by the laser, includingspectroscopy, optical cooling and trapping, and optical tweezers, among many others, and provides a glimpse into the ways that the laser affects our daily lives via its uses in medicine, manufacturing, the nuclear industry, energy, communication, art conservation, fashion, beauty, and entertainment.

It is preceded by Part 1 which explains the fundamentals of optics, what a laser is, how it works, and what is unique about the light it emits, from fundamental quantum theory through population inversion to common laser types.