Rayf Shiell passionately balances both research and teaching at Trent University, Canada. His primary research is in optics and ranges from probing matter using high-power laser beams to exploring the optics of the eye. He teaches a wide range of courses and delights in uncovering the often surprising connections between them. His love of good pedagogy has permeated not only this present text, from which he has taught for many years, but all his work as a mentor and instructor, extending also to coaching the university rowing team. He is co-developer of the integrated testlet, an assessment tool that employs a scaffolded answer-until-correct question structure, which features in each chapter of this text. For this work he was a co-recipient of Trent University's 2021 Award for Educational Leadership and Innovation.

Theme I. Introducing Light; 1. The Optical Landscape; 2. Ray Optics; 3. Understanding Optical Instruments; 4. Waves; 5. Light Sources, Displays, and Detectors; Theme II. A Scalar Field Approach to Light; 6. Superposition of Waves; 7. Interference of Light; 8. Interferometry and Multilayer Films; 9. Coherence; 10. Fraunhofer Diffraction; 11. Prisms, Diffraction Gratings, and Spectrometers; Theme III. A Vector Field Approach to Light; 12. Reflection and Transmission at Surfaces; 13. Optical Fibers and Communications Technology; 14. Mathematical Treatment of Polarization; 15. Polarization in Practice; Theme IV. Lasers and Laser Beams; 16. Light-Matter Interactions; 17. Lasers and Laser Operation; 18. Laser Beams and Laser Cavities; Theme V. Advanced Topics; 19. Aberrations; 20. Fourier Optics: Imaging and Spectroscopy; 21. Fresnel Diffraction; 22. Holography; 23. Optical Properties of Materials; 24. Nonlinear Optics and the Modulation of Light; 25. Laser Technology and Applications; 26. Optics of The Eye; Appendices; A. Physical constants; B. Mathematical formulas; C. Bibliography; D. Answers to selected questions; E. Integrated testlet lookup table.