Diode Lasers

Sand's 'Diode Lasers' will be an invaluable companion book to any student doing a final year course on lasers or starting a postgraduate career in laser diode research. Established researchers in this field will also find it a good refresher text covering a broad subject area starting from basics. Written in a clear, intuitive, easy to read style (rare for any textbook in science), Sands manages to convey an enthusiasm for his subject and avoids diving into unnecessary details which so often confuse researchers new to a field and make so-called 'introductory' text inaccessible. ...Sands has an excellent knowledge of the historical development of the field. ...Sands gives fascinating glimpses into the thinking of the inventors of each new development. Sands also seems to have a knack of being able to recognize where a student might have difficulty with a concept and then explain it in simple terms. Sand's style of writing, historical understanding and ability to explain difficult ideas simply, have turned what might easily have been a rather 'dry' text book into 'a good read'. ...this paper back book is reasonably and competitively priced for a specialist text. It would make an ideal course text for final year graduates, MSc or beginning PhD students and an excellent general text for the bookshelf of any researcher working in a related field who needs a good, readable, overview of this field. -G. Dunn, Optics in Lasers and Engineering