Progress in Optics Vol 34 Author:Wolf Hardbound. This volume presents a review of the research in several areas of modern optics written by experts well-known in the international scientific community.The first chapter discusses properties and methods of production and detection of coherent superpositions of macroscopically distinguishable states of light (the so-called Schrödinger ... more »cat states). Chapter two deals with the phase-shift method, which originated in the 1930's, for the analysis of potential-scattering problems in atomic and nuclear physics. Recently this approach has been applied to wave propagation in one-dimensional inhomogeneous media. Chapter three is concerned with the statistical properties of dynamic laser speckles that arise from scattering objects with rough surfaces undergoing translation and rotation. A moving phase-screen model is employed, which gives a relatively simple formulation of the theory and a clear picture of the time-varying speckle phenomenon. The f« less