A slender, no-nonsense book that dives right into the topic, this book does not include information about the author beyond his name. Still, Joseph W. Goodman probably does not need any introduction, as his name is synonymous with Fourier optics.
The author doesn’t waste much time on introductory material, referring readers to a previously published eBook for Fourier transformations and other textbooks. He also asks the readers to rely on their personal background on Fourier optics and knowledge of the Mathematica software package.
The chapters are brief and to the point, rapidly proceeding from the basics of the wave equation through diffraction and imaging and ending with filtering applications. The review is for the eBook version, which might lack some of the features of the printed edition. But it includes beautiful color graphs and charts, along with the Mathematica code that generated them. While the mathematical theory involved is rather challenging, the use of the Mathematica software makes the book accessible to those who may not be quite conversant with the calculations.
There are no figure or equation numbers. References all fit on a single page, standing on the shoulders of giants like Wolf, Papoulis and Goodman himself. Like other books by Goodman, this one should be read carefully, treasured, and referred to often, both by graduate students and professionals in the field. It could work well as a graduate textbook, although it lacks exercises.
Review by Bogdan Hoanca, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or its publisher, Optica