This volume is the sixth in a series of books initiated in 1989 by the International Commission for Optics (ICO). These books highlight the advances and trends in the research and development of optical sciences, technologies, and applications at the time of their publication.

In this age of the photon, information optics and photonics represent the key technologies to sustain our knowledge-based society. New concepts in classical and quantum-entangled light, coherent interaction with matter, and novel materials and processes have led to remarkable advances in today's information science and technology. The ICO is closely involved with information optics, as exemplified by the ICO topical meeting on Optoinformatics / Information Photonics (St. Petersburg, Russia, 2006), the ICO/ICTP Winter College on Quantum and Classical Aspects of Information Optics (Trieste, Italy, 2006), and the many ICO Prizes recently awarded on outstanding contributions on these topics. This book is in part based on these ICO activities.

This volume contains a collection of 32 chapters from internationally leading scientists and research groups on a variety of topics in information optics and photonics, including the 2003-2006 ICO Prize winners. The chapters are divided into 7 sections: Beam Optics; Laser Photonics and Components; Electromagnetic Coherence; Imaging, Microscopy, Holography, and Materials; Photonic Processing; Quantum Information and Matter; and Communications and Networks.

This volume was edited by Ari T. Friberg, ICO President, and René Dändliker, ICO Past President (2005-2008). Dr. Friberg is Professor of Optics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden, and Finland Distinguished Professor at Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) and the University of Joensuu, Finland. Dr. Dändliker is Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Microtechnology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and President of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.