Instructor
Prof. F. Elohim Becerra
Email: fbecerra@unm.edu
Office: P&A 19
Phone: 505 277-2673
Teaching Assistant
Amir Khabbazi Oskouei
Email: akhabbazioskouei@unm.edu
Office: P&A
This course provides an introduction to the physics of lasers and some applications. It covers fundamental properties of light and its behavior in the presence of matter, the analysis of resonant cavities and light oscillation and amplification, and the physics of lasers and their properties. The course will address topics in fundamentals of electromagnetic theory, propagation of light, coherence, optical resonators, light-matter interactions, atomic radiation and laser excitation.
Students in this course will learn the fundamental properties of light-matter interactions and light propagation, and will apply the mathematical description of these properties to examine the behavior of different kinds of lasers.
Pre-requisites: E&M, Undergraduate Physics, Modern Physics, Knowledge of Differential Equations, Linear & Complex Algebra, Matrix representations, Optics.Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:45, P&A Room 184.
Textbook for the class:
Laser Electronics (3rd Edition) by Joseph T. Verdeyen. The course will cover Chapters 1-11, although we will not cover all the material in some chapters.
Additional resources
Lasers: Anthony E. Siegman.
Introduction to Optics (3rd Edition): Frank L. Pedrotti Leno M. Pedrotti Leno S. Pedrotti.
Fundamentals of Photonics
, 2nd Edition: E. A. Saleh, Malvin Carl Teich.
Optics,
4th Edition: E. Hecht.
There will be regular assignments of problem sets taken from the
textbook
by E. Verdeyen, about one set per week, which may also contain additional exercises.
The assignments will be given throughout the semester and will be posted in the Tentative Schedule about one week
before they are due. Homeworks must be turned in to the TA's mailbox before 5:00 pm on the due date.
Office hours: Monday 9-11 am. You may also arrange a meeting for another time via email.
TA office hours: Tuesdays 2-3 pm in the P&A lobby.
You may also arrange a meeting for another time via email.
The final grade will be based on the homework assignments, two midterm exams and a final exam. The contribution to the final grade is as follows:
Exam Dates (subject to change): Midterms, September 24 and November 5.
The Final Exam is comprehensive and is scheduled for Tuesday, December 8, 7:30-9:30 am.
The course will be based on the textbook by Joseph T. Verdeyen. It will cover several topics in each chapter, however, not all of them. Below is a tentative list of topics that will be covered. You can find the calendar for the course in the Tentative Schedule.
Lasers: Anthony E. Siegman .
Introduction to Optics (3rd Edition): Frank L. Pedrotti Leno M. Pedrotti Leno S. Pedrotti.
Fundamentals of Photonics , 2nd Edition: E. A. Saleh, Malvin Carl Teich.
Optics,
4th Edition: E. Hecht.
| Topic | Date | Subject | Verdeyen Reading | Homework | HW Due | Solutions |
| Introduction | 08/18 (T) | Historical Overview; Lasers | ||||
| Review of E&M | 08/20 (R) | Maxwell's Eqns. and waves in dielectrics | Ch 1 | HW1 | (R) Aug 27 | HW1Sol | 08/25 (T) | Boundary conditions; coherent radiation | Ch 1 |
| Ray Tracing | 08/27 (R) | ABCD Matrix methods | Ch 2 | |||
| 09/01 (T) | Cavities and lenses | Ch 2 | HW2 | (T) Sep 8 | HW2Sol | |
| 09/03 (R) | Applications of ray tracing | Ch 2 | ||||
| Gaussian Beams | 09/08 (T) | Wave equation with cylindrical symmetry | Ch 3 | HW3 | (T) Sep 15 | HW3Sol |
| 09/10 (R) | Properties of Gaussian beams | Ch 3 | ||||
| 09/15 (T) | ABCD matrix for Gaussian beams | Ch 3 | HW4 | (T) Sep 22 | HW4Sol | |
| Optical Cavities | 09/17 (R) | Sable Resonator and ABCD method for cavities | Ch 5 | |||
| 09/22 (T) | Resonant Optical Cavities | Ch 6 | ||||
| 09/24 (R) | Midterm 1 | |||||
| 09/29 (T) | Q parameter and Lifetime for cavities | Ch 6 | HW5 | (T) Oct 6 | HW5Sol | |
| Atomic Radiation | 10/01 (R) | Light matter interaction; classical atom | Ch13 | |||
| 10/06 (T) | Black body radiation and Einstein coefficients | Ch 7 | HW6 | (T) Oct 13 | HW6Sol | |
| 10/08 (R) | Fall break | Ch 7 | ||||
| 10/13 (T) | Lineshape and aplification | Ch 7 | HW7 | (T) Oct 20 | HW7Sol | |
| 10/15 (R) | Broadening processes | Ch 7 | ||||
| Laser Oscillation | 10/20 (T) | General conditions for oscillation | Ch 8 | HW8 | (T) Oct 27 | HW8Sol |
| 10/22 (R) | Laser rate equations | Ch 8 | ||||
| 10/27 (T) | Saturated gain and saturated amplifier | Ch 8 | HW9 | (T) Nov 3 | HW9Sol | |
| 10/29 (R) | Doppler-broadened saturated gain | Ch 8 | ||||
| 11/03 (T) | Laser linewidth and output power | Ch 8 | ||||
| 11/05 (R) | Midterm 2 | Ch 5-8 | MT2Sol | |||
| Laser Properties | 11/10 (T) | 3- and 4-level systems. CW ring laser | Ch 9 | HW10 | (T) Nov 17 | HW10Sol |
| 11/12 (R) | Optimal coupling. Laser dynamics | Ch 9 | ||||
| 11/17 (T) | Q-switching |
Ch 9 | HW11 | (T) Nov 24 | HW11Sol | |
| 11/19 (R) | Mode Locking | Ch 9 | ||||
| 11/24 (T) | " | Ch 9 | HW12 | (T) Dec 01 | HW12Sol | |
| 11/26 (R) | Thanks giving | |||||
| 11/17 (T) | ||||||
| 11/19 (R) | Lab tours |