Introduction to Matrix Methods in Optics

Rating:
Summary: Pretty boring and disorganized
Review: If you are already involved in optical computations, but have forgotten some fundamental tricks, this book is for you. As a trainer or reference it is difficult and obtuse. It is a string of mathematical methods linked together by math relationships rather than application to optic relationships. It was not of much help.

However, it is very inexpensive in the paperback form. You get what you pay for I guess.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty boring and disorganized
Review: If you are already involved in optical computations, but have forgotten some fundamental tricks, this book is for you. As a trainer or reference it is difficult and obtuse. It is a string of mathematical methods linked together by math relationships rather than application to optic relationships. It was not of much help.

However, it is very inexpensive in the paperback form. You get what you pay for I guess.

Rating:
Summary: A Bit Antique, But An Excellent Orientation
Review: This book is very inexpensive (thanks again, Dover), and talks about all sorts of matrix methods in optics: ABCD matrices for paraxial ray tracing, Jones matrices, coherency matrices, and Stokes parameters for polarization, among other things.

It's not a terribly deep book, but it is readable, lucid, and complete. It got me up to speed rapidly on an area I was fuzzy in, so for [...] it's a great bargain.