Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Field quantization -- Coherent states -- Emission and absorption of radiation by atoms -- Quantum coherence functions -- Beam splitters and interferometers -- Nonclassical light -- Dissipative interactions -- Optical tests of quantum mechanics -- Experiments in cavity QED and with ion traps -- Applications of entanglement : Heisenberg-limited interferometry and quantum information processing -- The density operator and entangled states -- Quantum measurement theory in a (very small) nutshell -- Derivation of the effective Hamiltonian for dispersive (far off-resonant) interactions -- Nonlinear optics and spontaneous parametric down conversion.