The positive response to the First Edition of “Microoptics” has encouraged us to take on the
task of revising and extending the book. This was not an easy task for several reasons. First,
microoptics is still a “field in flux”. Therefore, making changes in the text is a delicate task if
one does not want to destroy the balance between the chapters. Furthermore, one of us (STS)
moved to the University of Ilmenau, Germany, just at the time when the revision was due.
Delays were thus inevitable.
This Second Edition offers a few changes relative to the First Edition published four years
ago. Firstly, of course, we tried to eliminate as many errors as possible. Here, helpful comments
of many readers are gratefully acknowledged. Secondly, we supplemented the topic
“measurement and characterization of microoptics” which we had omitted in the first edition.
We also tried to give more structure to those areas that were “novel” several years ago. Consequently,
a few new chapters were added. The aspect of “microoptics in optical design” has
recently gained much importance, therefore, a separate chapter devoted to that area was included.
Finally, we describe several areas that have come to the foreground in a chapter on
“novel directions”.