Springer Handbook of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

This Springer Handbook of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics comprises a comprehensive reference source that unifies the entire fields of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics, assembling the principal ideas, techniques and results of the field from atomic spectroscopy to applications in comets. Its 92 chapters are written by over 100 authors, all leaders in their respective disciplines.

Carefully edited to ensure a uniform coverage and style and with extensive cross references, together with a guide to the primary research literature, it is both a source of information and an inspiration for graduate students and other researchers new to the field. All chapters offer diagrams of apparatus, graphs, and tables of data.

Substantially updated and expanded since the 1996 edition and published in conjunction with the 2005 World Year of Physics (commemorating Einstein’s 1905 "miracle year"), it contains several entirely new chapters covering current areas of great research interest, such as Bose – Einstein condensation, quantum information, and cosmological variations of the fundamental constants. A fully searchable CD-ROM version of the contents accompanies the handbook.

From the reviews of the second edition:

"This large, well-produced volume contains everything now needed to work in the fields of atomic, molecular, and optical physics. Hence, it should easily available to every working applied physicist. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through professionals." (A. M. Saperstein, CHOICE, Vol. 43 (10), June, 2006)

"This Handbook comprises a comprehensive reference source that unifies the entire fields of atomic, molecular and optical physics, assembling the principal ideas, techniques and results of the field … . It combines introductory explanations with descriptions of phenomena, discussions of results achieved, and gives a useful selection of references to allow more detailed studies, making the handbook very suitable as a desktop reference. … I can recommend this valuable handbook not only to physicists, but also to professionals … ." (Paul Gerich, Optik, Vol. 117, 2006)

"G.W.F. Drake has marshalled more than 130 authors into contributing 92 articles, organized into seven broad areas … . I have the impression that the entries will be helpful to the physicists for whom they are intended … . The book is beautifully produced, the printing of the mathematics is a pleasure to the eye, the referencing has been standardized … and the pages are nicely formatted. … it will be frequently hauled down from the shelf of any library … ." (P. W. Hawkes, Ultramicroscopy, Vol. 107, 2007)

"The well-received 1996 Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Handbook … has been updated and reissued, with Springer as the new publisher … . The print is easy to read and illustrations have been generously supplied. … I enthusiastically recommend it for rapid acquisition by AMO groups who missed the first edition altogether" (Prof. J. Eberly, Contemporary Physics, Vol. 48 (1), 2007)

Gordon W F Drake is a Professor of Physics at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He was awarded the 1994 Gold Medal for Achievement in Physics by the Canadian Association of Physicists and has chaired both the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of The American Physical Society, as well as the IUPAP Commission on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. Dr. Drake is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, The American Physical Society, and the British Institute of Physics.