Atoms and Molecules Interacting with Light: Atomic Physics for the Laser Era

The first half is mostly a rehash of one of the author's older book, which admittedly has withstood the test of time. The newer material includes molecular structure, (ultra)cold molecules, the three level system, but the delivery felt cursory (the book quickly points you to its references for anything more than a surface discussion). The molecule part is disappointing given that a growing number of theses written by graduate students actually do a better job introducing these concepts.

Handwaving and sketchy at best. The level of physics here is insulting to the interested, graduate level experimentalist. Get Demtroder, Cohen-Tannoudji for the fundamentals and read Reviews of Modern Physics for cutting edge research, save yourself time and money. This is not to say the authors are not good at what they do as far as science goes.

I'm really not a fan of this as a course text. It is geared for experimentalists, which is fine I guess, but it has regular use of proof by hand wave, and regularly announces many aspects (like the dirac equation) beyond the scope and to take it on faith, in effect.

I liked everything in the book. The way the concepts are brought to the readers help them to a better understanding.

This book walks you through the essential contents in the modern atomic physics research. I think this is THE BOOK for atomic physics as of right now.