Contemporary optics is the foundation of many of today’s technologies including various focusing and defocusing devices, microscopies and imaging techniques.

Light and X-ray Optics for Materials Scientists and Engineers offers a guide to basic concepts and provides an accessible framework for understanding this highly application-relevant branch of science for materials scientists, physicists, chemists, biologists, and engineers trained in different disciplines. The text links the fundamentals of optics to modern applications, especially for promotion of nanotechnology and life science, such as conventional, near-field, confocal, phase-contrast microscopies and imaging schemes based on interference and diffraction phenomena. Written by a noted expert and experienced instructor, the book contains numerous worked examples throughout to help the reader gain a thorough understanding of the concepts and information presented. The text covers a wide range of relevant topics, including reflection, refraction, and focusing phenomena, wave polarization and birefringence in crystals, optics in negative materials, metamaterials, and photonic structures, holography, light and X-ray interferometry, extensive description of diffraction optics, including dynamical X-ray diffraction, and more.