Field Guide to Light-Matter Interaction

Our understanding of the interaction of light and matter has a long history that evolved from the ancient corpuscular theory to wave theory and finally to the quantum theory. Matter is composed of charged particles, and among these particles are positively charged nuclei surrounded by electrons that are in motion. Light is an oscillating electromagnetic wave. But light is also particles (photons). The primary objective of this Field Guide is to provide the principles of light-matter interaction using classical, semiclassical, and quantum theories. To this end, the guide provides the formulae for, and descriptions of, phenomena that are fundamental to our current state of knowledge of light-matter interaction.