Comment by rhotter on The Best Textbooks on Every Subject · 2024-12-02T21:50:16.485Z · LW · GW

Some recs:

• For optics: Introduction to Fourier Optics by Goodman. Much better than Optics by Hecht. Principles of Optics by Born and Wolf is also wonderful if you have a strong math background.
• For biomedical optics: Quantitative Biomedical Optics: Theory, Methods, and Applications by Bigio and Fantini is great. Way better than Biomedical Optics: Principles and Imaging by Wang and Wu.
• For nonlinear optics: Nonlinear Optics by Boyd is great.
• For electrodynamics: Modern Electrodynamics by Zangwill is wonderful. It's more advanced and mathematically sophisticated than Griffith's and I prefer it over Jackson.