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3.1 Introduction
Optics is both a very old and a very contemporary eld of
research. Mirrors made millennia ago as well as the advanced
imaging methods that decorate recent years’ lists of scientic
breakthroughs (Betzig et al. 2006, Bates et al. 2007, Hell 2007,
Abbott 2009) can all be understood with the same physical
framework. We will explore the basic physics of optics in this
chapter, intended to serve as a review of elementary principles,
or as an introduction for readers new to optics. Our treatment is
necessarily brief and minimal—the reader interested in further
elaboration should consult a textbook devoted to optics, such a ...