Selected Works of Emil Wolf

The following sections are included:

• CONTENTS

• Preface

The majority of the papers in this Section (1.1 – 1.4, 1.8, 1.9) are concerned with the structure of focused fields. The first significant contribution to this subject was made by E. Lommel, in a classic paper published in 1885. The reader may wonder why, so much later, the subject is still attracting attention. The answer is that the focal region is an important but rather complicated domain in many optical fields, and that its understanding helps to utilize its rather remarkable properties, some of which have been finding new and useful applications until the present time…

The first two papers in this Section (papers 2.1 and 2.2) are concerned with theoretical models developed in the 1960s and 1970s for the interaction of waves and charged particles with material media. An important role in these theories is played by waves which decay exponentially in amplitude along a certain direction as they propagate. They are known as evanescent waves. Today such waves are well-known, particularly in the area of near-field optics, but at the time when these papers were written such waves were regarded as somewhat of a rarity, except in connection with total internal reflection and the skin effect in metals…

Most of my scientific work has been and still is concerned with coherence properties of light and with related topics in the broad area of statistical optics. The role this research has played in the development of this area of optics is discussed in a lecture “Development of Coherence Theory”, of which a shortened version is presented in Sec. 7.3 of this volume. I will, therefore, comment here only briefly on the papers on this subject which are reproduced in Section 3…

The first paper in this Section, paper 4.1, is entitled “Three-dimensional structure determination of semi-transparent objects from holographic data”. The reference to holography was included in the title because the reconstruction technique proposed in that paper requires the knowledge not only of the amplitude, but also of the phase of the scattered field, which is generally difficult to measure at optical wavelengths; and I showed in paper 4.2 written around the same time how both the amplitude and the phase of the scattered field can be determined by means of holography. Of course today there are other techniques for measuring the phase. The inverse method proposed in paper 4.1 has developed into a rather successful inversion technique known today as diffraction tomography. It provides an improvement, for some applications, over the well-known computed axial tomography, or CAT, which is an important medical diagnostic tool. Today, both CAT and diffraction tomography find many uses also outside the field of medicine*…

The principles of radiometry are based on one of the oldest models for energy propagation in optical fields. It is a very useful model, used to describe, for example, the distribution of the field intensity from sources of different kinds, usually thermal ones, or to evaluate the performance of various radiation detectors. In its generalized form, known as the theory of radiative energy transfer, it plays a basic role in astrophysics in connection with investigations of stellar atmospheres and the interior of stars. However, except for some special situations, the foundations of radiometry, and of radiative energy transfer have so far not been clarified. In paper 5.4 a review is presented of various investigations which showed that a close relationship exists between radiometry and the theory of partial coherence…

This short Section contains reprints of three papers based on lectures which can be loosely described as dealing with the history of physics. However, since I am not an historian of science, they should be regarded as having been written by an interested amateur.

The three papers are concerned with Einstein's researches on the nature of light (6.1), recollections of Max Born (6.2) and an account of the life and work of Christiaan Huygens (6.3).

Other accounts of some historical interest, based on previously unpublished lectures, are included in the next Section.…

This Section contains accounts of five previously unpublished lectures, which I have given on various occasions to widely different audiences, consisting mainly of students, academic faculty and the staff of industrial laboratories.

Lecture 7.1 deals with the important subject of dispersion relations and describes its roots in the concepts of analyticity and causality. Lecture 7.2 is a somewhat informal presentation of the highlights from the life and work of twenty-one famous scientists who made major contributions to our understanding of the nature of light and whose work helped to lay the foundations of optics. Lecture 7.3 outlines developments which have lead to the Understanding of optical coherence.

Lecture 7.4 is of a rather personal nature, concerned largely with my scientific career. The chapter concludes in a lighter vein, with lecture 7.5, which relates how I came to Rochester more than four decades ago and describes some of my observations and experiences at the University of Rochester over this long period of time…

The following sections are included:

• Publications by Emil Wolf (up to Dec. 31, 2000)
  • (a) Papers
  • (b) Books (co-authored)
  • (c) Books (edited)