Understanding Laser Technology, by Breck Hitz, J.J. Ewing, and Jeff Hecht, is currently in its third edition, published by John Wiley under agreement with the IEEE Press. 
.  It was written specifically for students taking the author's short course, Understanding Laser Technology, but it has subsequently been incorporated into the curricula at several colleges, and has found broad readership among engineers and managers in the laser industry. 

Breck Hitz, the executive director of LEOMA, is the instructor for Understanding Laser Technology.  He developed the original version of the course in 1975 at San Jose City College, and has been teaching and revising it steadily ever since.  During the past two decades, he has presented the course to literally thousands of engineers, scientists, technicians, and business people.

As a research engineer at GTE, Hitz published papers describing his research in nonlinear optics and laser mode control in many of the well-known archival journals.  He is a former editor of Laser Focus magazine, and was the founding editor of Lasers & Applications magazine.  He is the current chairman of the ISO Laser Standards Committee.  He holds Bachelors' and Masters' degrees in physics (from the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Massachusetts, respectively).