Reddit mentions of Introduction to Modern Optics (Dover Books on Physics)

Person B is wrong. This is why i hate the photon model - so many people misinterpret it.
A good rule of thumb is that light travels as a wave but interacts with matter as a particle. This means that any interaction with matter (atoms/molecules) must occur in discrete quanta of energy. Things get very messy if you try to use the particle picture to explain how light travels.

It's a bit of a mess to explain index of refraction using photons... but here's the short version of why person B's explanation is wrong:

Absorption features are typically very spectrally narrow. Materials will only absorb a narrow band of wavelengths. The index of refraction is very broad over long regions of the spectrum. Also, if person B were correct, then index of refraction would depend only on the type of material, which (if we take the case of carbon) is not the case. Diamond (n=2.4) and soot (n=1.1)are both made of carbon, but have very different indices of refraction. Index of refraction depends heavily on the organization (crystal or noncrystal) of the material and other bulk material properties.

If you do want to use the photon model, this is the best explanation I have found - its a bit of a mess:

>A solid has a network of ions and electrons fixed in a "lattice". Think of this as a network of balls connected to each other by springs. Because of this, they have what is known as "collective vibrational modes", often called phonons. These are quanta of lattice vibrations, similar to photons being the quanta of EM radiation. It is these vibrational modes that can absorb a photon. So when a photon encounters a solid, and it can interact with an available phonon mode (i.e. something similar to a resonance condition), this photon can be absorbed by the solid and then converted to heat (it is the energy of these vibrations or phonons that we commonly refer to as heat). The solid is then opaque to this particular photon (i.e. at that frequency). Now, unlike the atomic orbitals, the phonon spectrum can be broad and continuous over a large frequency range. That is why all materials have a "bandwidth" of transmission or absorption. The width here depends on how wide the phonon spectrum is. Fowels

A more brief explanation comes from wikipedia

>The slowing can instead be described as a blending of the photon with quantum excitations of the matter (quasi-particles such as phonons and excitons) to form a polariton; this polariton has a nonzero effective mass, which means that it cannot travel at c.

To use the wave model:

To use the wave model, let's go back to the derivation of the wave equation from Maxwell's equations. When you derive the most general form of the speed of an EM wave, the speed is v=1/sqrt(mu epsilon). In the special case where the light travels in vacuum the permittivity and permeability take on their vacuum values (mu0 and epsilon0) and the speed of the wave is c. In materials with the permittivity and permeability not equal to the vacuum values, the wave travels slower. Most often we use the relative permittivity (muR, close to 1 in optical frequencies) and relative permeability (epsilon_R) so we can write the speed of the wave as c/n, where n=1/sqrt(epsilonR muR).

Boundary (interface) conditions require the optical wave be continuous as it crosses a boundary, and since the wave is restricted to traveling slower in the medium, the wavelength must change. There used to be a really good animation of this online, but I can't seem to find it...

Hecht is the landmark. If you want a bargain Grant Fowles modern optics is hard to beat.

Introduction to Modern Optics by Fowler

Frankly it's like to be too focused on the physics of optics. You'll have much different knowledge requirements packaging laser diodes than you will building telecom transceivers or camera lenses. Not that there aren't people who have worked in all those fields.

What I would suggest:

Introduction to Modern Optics by Fowles. It's short and to the point.

The Oxford Solid State Basics by Simon. The author also has lectures posted on his website that are fantastic. Additionally, Roald Hoffmann has a series of papers that introduce solid state concepts that are useful for chemists. They're very worthwhile reads. Here, here, and here.

Computational Physics by Newman. I find this really easy to read and understand. A lot of people around here recommend it.

I used Modern Optics by Grant Fowels. It's decent.

First of all, I'm delighted that you used to find science boring, and now you enjoy it. I also agree that Feynman lectures will cover almost everything you list. Since I'm an optical engineer, let me steer you to the Field Guide series for handy books on optics. If you just want one book in optics, I like Introduction to Modern Optics by Grant Fowles.
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Modern-Optics-Dover-Physics/dp/0486659577/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8