The later chapters are rich in techniques and intuition applicable to atom-trapping, spectroscopy, laser theory, etc. Cohen-Tannoudji covers a lot of material, and manages to link it all to a few basic fundamental principles. The book is extremely well-organized, with bite-sized sections and appendices to each chapter. An excellent collection of exercises with solutions is included in the back. Unfortunately, the text does not prompt the reader to try working these problems at appropriate times (sadly, I didn't realize the exercises were there until I'd been using the book for some time). Like Photons and Atoms, this is primarily a book for theorists; its one weakness, I feel, is that the principles, however clear, never seem connected to the actual numbers that an experimentalist or system designer can relate to.

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One of the best books  Oct 12, 2008 By irfan
This is one of the best books in the field of QED. I used it for self-study. Only downside (also upside) about it is that everything is explained so completely that the reaser might become a bit lazy at times to spend some intellectual effort. An excellent book for self-study.

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book came in conditions as described  Mar 13, 2011 By Lioha_MIT
Haven't used the book much yet, but it came highly recommended by Wolfgang Ketterle (Nobel Prize for BEC), the instructor for the Atomic, Molecular & Optical graduate course at MIT.