By any measure, atomic physics is among the fastest-growing, most dynamic, and best-recognized areas of physics. The student attendance at conferences devoted to this subject area has burgeoned, and the number of new university tenure track positions in atomic physics is disproportionately high. Recently there have been several documents from national and international science-oriented agencies extolling the growth and importance of atomic physics, with statements such as “Light influences our lives today in ways we could never have imagined a few decades ago,” and “AMO science (not only) provides the basis for new technology, it is also a source of the intellectual capital on which science and technology depend for growth and development.” The General Assembly of the United Nations and UNESCO declared 2015 as the “International Year of Light”, further underscoring its importance to the world. Applications are not restricted to further exploration of our specialized field, but have expanded to include substantial impact on other areas of physics such as condensed matter, quantum information, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics. For these and other reasons, we have decided to provide an introductory text appropriate to the emerging laser era in atomic, molecular, and optical science.

This book is intended for multiple purposes. First and foremost, we are experimentalists, so the material is presented in an intuitive and very physical tone. Many ideas are developed from the classical physics perspective rather than from mathematical formalism. We try to connect the concepts with measurements where it makes sense to do so, and to motivate each topic by the observations that produced the information about it.

Our intent is to use it as a text for a course in atomic physics. It requires a knowledge of quantum mechanics at the level of the well-known textbooks by Griffiths or Liboff, and of elementary electricity and magnetism. Thus it is suitable for an advanced undergraduate course or a beginning graduate course (certainly for a course that serves both populations together). In addition, we have tried to write in a sufficiently familiar style that a student can read and understand the material even without the benefit of a course. That is, the material is presented in a descriptive mode to maximize understanding. Some applications and detailed calculations relevant to a particular chapter are provided as appendices to the specific chapter.