Instructor: Daniel A. Steck
Office: 277 Willamette Phone: 346-5313 email: dsteck@uoregon.edu
Office hours: T 12:00-1:00, F 12:00-1:00, and by appointment
TA: Sasha Tavenner Kruger email: quack@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Course home page: http://atomoptics.uoregon.edu/~dsteck/teaching/06spring/phys425
Schedule: MWF 9:00-9:50, 318 Willamette
Course reference number: 37021 (425); 37026 (524)
Credits: 4
Prerequisites: PHYS 424/524
Links: news, course notes, homework sets and keys.
This course will provide a broad overview of Fourier optics, light-atom interactions, laser physics, and other topics in modern optics. See the tentative syllabus below for a preliminary list of topics we will cover.
Recommended Text: Fowles, Introduction to Modern Optics
There are many other excellent standard optics texts that you may find useful for this course.
These will be on reserve in the science library:
Grades for the course will be based on homework, one mid-term exam, and a final exam. The relative weights will be as follows:
Homework: this is a homework-intensive course. Homework will be assigned weekly and each assignment will be due in class one week after it is assigned. Thereafter, late homework will be accepted, but at a 25% penalty for each 24 hour period it is turned in late. Partial assignments may be turned in, and only the late portion will be penalized. The relative contribution of each homework assignment to the final grade will depend on its difficulty. Additional problems will occasionally be assigned for PHYS 525 students.
Mid-term exam: I would again like to have an evening exam in lieu of one of the usual class periods (to reduce time pressure). This is scheduled for Thursday, 11 May at 6:30 pm instead of class on 24 May. (Exam to be held in 318 Willamette.)
Final exam: The final exam will be held Thursday, June 15, 10:15-12:15, in 318 Willamette.
Pass/fail grading option: a passing grade requires the equivalent of a C- grade on the homework. All exams are optional for this grading option.
Some of the homework will require access to a computer for basic calculations (in low-level languages such as C or Fortran, or any of several higher-level packages such as Mathematica, Maple, Matlab, Octave, Mathcad, etc.) and basic plotting (e.g., GNUplot, Excel, etc.). I will use Mathematica for examples because of its availability at UO, but it is not necessarily the best choice for any particular problem. Contact the instructor as soon as possible if you do not already have access to such resources.
| Monday | Wednesday | Friday |
|---|---|---|
| 3 April Fourier Analysis II: Convolution, Green's Functions |
5 April Fourier Optics: Wave Propagation |
7 April Fourier Optics: Fraunhofer Diffraction |
| 10 April Fourier Optics: Fresnel Diffraction |
12 April Fourier Optics: Acousto-Optic Effect |
14 April Fourier Optics: Spatial Filtering |
| 17 April Fourier Optics: Holography |
19 April Fourier Analysis III: Numerics of Fourier Transforms |
21 April Statistical Optics: Coherence |
| 24 April Statistical Optics: Interference and Visibility |
26 April Light-Atom Interactions: Lorentz Model |
28 April Atom Optics: Light Shifts and Optical Forces |
| 1 May Atom Optics: Atom-Photon interactions |
3 May Atom Optics: Laser Cooling and Trapping |
5 May Optical Media: Absorption and Dispersion |
| 8 May Optical Media: Kramers-Kronig Relations |
10 May Optical Media: Resonant Media and Pulse Propagation |
12 May Laser Physics: Overview |
| 15 May Laser Physics: Gain Saturation |
17 May Laser Physics: Light-Atom Interactions |
19 May Laser Physics: Optical Gain and Pumping Schemes |
| 22 May Laser Physics: Output Characteristics |
24 May No Class: Evening Midterm Instead |
26 May Fiber Optics: Ray Tracing |
| 29 May No Class: Memorial Day |
31 May Fiber Optics: Mode Analysis |
2 June Fiber Optics: Loss and Dispersion |
| 5 June Photonic Bandgap Crystals: Kronig-Penney Model |
7 June Photonic Bandgap Crystals: Fabrication and Performance |
9 June Review and Evaluation |
Other important dates:
Last day to drop without a W: 10 April
Last day to register: 12 April
Last day to withdraw: 21 May