Principles of Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy (Oxford Series in Optical & Imaging Sciences)

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Summary: Principles of Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy - a Must Have
Review: This is an excellent and very important book. The subject of nonlinear optical spectroscopy is a rapidly emerging field that is important in chemistry, physics, biology, and materials science. This book provides the theoretical underpinning for the entire field. It deals with a large number of experimental methods and topics that are widely used. This is a complex subject, and this is not a simple book. To present the theory at a level that enables researchers to understand and design experiments, it is necessary to go into depth in subjects that are complex conceptually and mathematically. A simplified version of the theory would be easier to follow, but it would not be useful. This book is a must for anyone in the field of nonlinear optical spectroscopy, whether he is an experimentalist or a theoretician.

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Summary: the bible for spectroscopists
Review: Unfortunately, this book is pretty much the only comprehesive text on the subject, and if you're a grad student about to begin study in this field, you will need this book. Mukamel is certainly very knowledgable, and he gives a unified treatment of absorption, transient grating, and photon echo spectroscopies in terms of double-sided Feynman diagrams. However, his treatment is highly algebraic and builds no physical intuition of the phenomena. If you can understand him, you probably thoroughly understood the topics before you read the book anyway. Self-study with this book will be frustrating, but it's an important resource for instructors and others who already understand the topic.