IO 2651 Optics
Course responsible
Docent, Dr. Sergei Popov
Course aim and description
Optics is today’s and tomorrow’s science, it is fun and useful, whatever your
career plans are. Optics can be fairly named as one of the cornerstones of
modern technologies.
Think about holography, conventional and novel lasers,
fibers, optical communication, photonics, ultrafast optics, nonlinear and
quantum optics, and so on.
This course gives the basic knowledge for all these fields. We consider all
aspects of light, i.e., optical rays, wave theory, electromagnetic fields, and
photons, with applications in imaging and instruments, diffraction,
interference, Fourier optics, metrology, etc.
We will touch and clarify peculiar facts from the fascinating world of
optics:
how light propagation inside metals is related to "hot topic" in science - plasmonics
human eye is most perfect light detector whenever created in the nature
transparent objects can be easily visible in details using
phase-contrast method
two closely placed perfect mirrors can totally transmit the light without
reflection
light can propagate in materials with the speed higher than in vacuum
… and many-many other things which are not obvious from our everyday
experience.
Objectives
The course is a general overview and gives a good starting point for the more
specialized optics and laser physics courses within the areas of photonics,
quantum optics/electronics, and optical physics. The extension course
specializes in more detail in geometrical optics, imaging, and optical design.
The course has primarily two goals:
to give a deeper and broader insight into optics as a science and a technology,
its basic physics and phenomena and their importance for technical applications
to be a starting point for the following, more specialised courses within the
special area of optics and photonics.
After successful completing the course, students will be able:
to “discover” the key role and identify particular manifestation
of electromagnetic field in nature phenomena
to analyze and solve physical problems involving the interaction
of radiation and matter, and the light propagation
to efficiently use literature (textbooks and scientific
publications) to penetrate most of the problems in optics, be they scientific or
technical problems in nature
Syllabus
Electromagnetic fields, propagation in vacuum and matter. Wave optics. Polarization,
interference, optics of thin films, optical measurement techniques. Diffraction, fourier
optics, optical information processing. Coherence. Quantum phenomena, lasers and modern
applications, non-linear optics. Geometrical optics and image formation, optical analysis
and design, image quality. Transfer of energy and information; radiometry and photometry.
Prerequisites
The prerequisites of the Master Programme in Photonics. Basic courses in wave
theory, electromagnetic field theory, are recommended.
Required reading
Hecht, E., Optics (4th ed. 2002), Addison Wesley.
Course material.
Recommended reading
Saleh, B., Teich, M., Fundamentals of Photonics (2nd ed. 2007), Wiley-Inerscience.
