Books
The required textbook for the course is "Introduction to Modern Optics", second edition, by Grant R. Fowles. This is an inexpensive Dover edition (ISBN 978-0486659572), a pleasant change from most hideously expensive physics textbooks! You should be able to get it for around $18 or less, so please do buy a copy.
You will also need a good-quality lab notebook for carefully sketching and recording experimental set-ups, notes and data. We recommend a ~9-by-12 inch bound notebook, quad ruled, with at least 75 sheets (150 pages). Don't get one with perforated pages or carbonless duplicate pages.
There is no lab manual for you to buy for this course. Descriptions of the experiments will be posted on ELMS for you to download.
Proper analysis of experimental measurements and their errors is crucial in this course. Therefore, we recommend that you get a good book covering statistics, error propagation and least-squares fitting if you don't already have one. Two good choices (that we have asked the bookstore to stock) are "Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences", third edition, by Bevington and Robinson (McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math, ISBN 978-0072472271) and "A Practical Guide to Data Analysis for Physical Science Students" by Lyons (Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521424639). The Lyons book is cheaper and at a lower level, while Bevington is a classic, more complete reference that can serve you well for many years. The "Introduction to Error Analysis" book by Taylor is also OK if you have it, but some students find it unnecessarily long and wordy.