Table of Contents

1: Introduction
2: Review of Classical Electrodynamics
3: Review of Quantum Mechanics
4: The Spontaneous Emission of Radiation
5: Selection Rules for Electric Dipole Transitions
6: Measurement of Radiative Lifetimes of Atoms and Molecules
7: Forbidden Transitions and Metastable Atoms
8: The Width and Shape of Spectral Lines
9: The Absorption and Stimulated Emission of Radiation
10: Radiative Transfer and the Formation of Spectral Lines
11: Population Inversion Mechanisms in Gas Lasers
12: Resonant Modes of Optical Cavities
13: Saturation Characteristics and the Single-Frequency Operation of Gas Lasers
14: Turnable Dye Lasers and Atomic Spectroscopy
15: The Hanle Effect and the Theory of Resonance Flourescence Experiments
16: Optical Double Resonance Experiments
17: Optical Pumping Experiments
18: The Hyperfine Structure of Atoms and its Investigation by Magnetic Resonance Methods
Appendix

Reviews

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The Higher Education Academy
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Physics Today
`The book will be of great value: to undergraduates, to beginning graduate students, even to atomic theorists.'
Nature