Essential Quantum Optics

“A masterful and beautifully written exposition of the theoretical ideas and tools of quantum optics that every serious student or researcher, theorist or experimentalist, should have under their belt. Leonhardt tells a connected story, while making each discussion as “simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Michael G. Raymer, University of Oregon

"I used Ulf Leonhardt's "Measuring the Quantum State of Light" (MQSL) in my quantum optics course when the book first appeared in 1997, and wished it were longer. Leonhardt writes in a lucid prose that moves quickly from basics to deep applications in clever, efficient derivations that are accessible to advanced undergraduates. "Essential Quantum Optics" expands the earlier work and breaks new pedagogical ground with a "Horizons" chapter on the intersection of optics and general relativity. Topics like Unruh and Hawking radiation are beautifully explained and related to concepts more familiar to the optics and atomic physics community. Leonhardt and colleagues after all "wrote the book" on some of these topics, and we can be grateful that he has taken the time to explain them here to a broad audience. Other new features are a chapter on irreversible processes and a careful treatment of the Casimir effect (in a technically more advanced Appendix) for which many who have struggled with the literature on this effect will be grateful. There will be disagreement on what is "essential" to know about quantum optics. The topics that are included, however, are well motivated and treated with elegance and insight. The figures are outstanding. Questions and exercises at the end of each chapter are well chosen and touch on some of the missing topics. "Essential Quantum Optics" rises to a very high standard for technical exposition. It is an ideal text for this subject."
John Marburger, Stony Brook University