[user11]

Hi,
I'm very interested in understanding light and optics such that i can understand the basics behind the different types of microscopes (phase-contrast, light microscope, electron emmision etc.). I'm not so interested in the math and calculations, more in the visual explanation of how light works and how it's used in microscopes so i have a clear picture of how the microscopes works and an intuition in how light works and can be used. Any books on those subjects?

Kind regards,
Christian

[Borek]

I am afraid you won't get far without math. Many of the effects observed just can't be explained by handwaving.

[Corribus]

The classic textbook on optics is Optics, by Hecht and Zajac, but this covers very fundamental materials about the properties of light and does not really go into applications and spectroscopic or microscopic instrumentation (at least, my version doesn't). There are also textbooks specifically dedicated to microscopy, of course, though I cannot with confidence recommend a good one. Olympus has a great website with some basic primers on various topics: http://www.olympusmicro.com/ . Actually, they seem to have expanded it quite a bit since the last time I visited it. I found this website very useful back when I was building a single-molecule confocal fluorescence system on my own. Some applied spectroscopy textbooks also have some introductory material, such as Lakowicz's Fluorescence Spectroscopy.

But, as Borek mentions, any text related to spectroscopy, microscopy, or optics is going to be pretty heavy on the math, unless you are just interested in applications. It is a fundamental discipline of physics, after all.

NOTE: I looks like later versions of Eugene Hecht may have dropped Zajac as a coauthor. My version is from 1974. Thankfully I don't think a lot of the fundamental stuff has changed in the last 30 years.

[Yggdrasil]

In addition to the Olympus site, Nikon also has a nice site with some good tutorials on some of the basics of microscopy:

http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/formulas/