Instructor
Prof. F. Elohim Becerra
Email: fbecerra@unm.edu
Office: P&A 19
Phone: 505 277-2673
Teaching Assistant
Nazanin Mosavian
Email: nmosavian@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 examine the principles of different kinds of lasers.
Pre-requisites: E&M, Undergraduate Physics, Modern Physics, Knowledge of Differential Equations, Linear & Complex Algebra, Matrix representations, Optics.Monday and Wednesday, 5:30-6:45, 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.
Laser Physics: P. W. Milonni, J. H. Eberly.
Optics, Light and Lasers: (2nd Edition) Dieter Meschede.
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 at the begining of the class at 5:30 pm on the due date.
Office hours: Monday 11:30 am -13:30 pm. You may also arrange a meeting for another time via email.
TA office hours: Tuesday 11:00am-12:00pm 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, I TBD and II November 8.
The Final Exam is comprehensive and is scheduled for Monday, December 11, 5:30-7:300 pm
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.
Laser Physics: P. W. Milonni, J. H. Eberly.
Optics, Light and Lasers: (2nd Edition) Dieter Meschede.
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 | Notes |
Introduction | 08/21 (M) | Historical Overview; Lasers | ||||
Review of E&M | 08/23 (W) | Maxwell's Eqns. and waves in dielectrics | Ch 1 | HW1 | (W) Aug 30 | HW1Sol |
08/28 (M) | Boundary conditions; coherent radiation | Ch 1 | ||||
Ray Tracing | 08/30 (W) | ABCD matrix methods | Ch 2 | HW2 | (W) Sep 6 | HW2Sol |
09/04 (M) | --- | Ch 2 | ||||
09/6 (W) | Cavities and lenses | Ch 2 | HW3 | (W) Sep 13 | HW3Sol | |
Gaussian Beams | 09/11 (M) | Applications of ray tracing. Wave equation with cylindrical symmetry | Ch 2/3 | |||
09/13 (W) | Properties of Gaussian beams and ABCD matrix | Ch 3 | HW4 | (W) Sep 20 | HW4Sol | |
09/18 (M) | Properties of Gaussian beams | Ch 3/4 | ||||
Optical Cavities | 09/20 (W) | Gaussian beams in cavities | Ch 5 | HW5 | (F) Sep 29 | HW5Sol |
09/25 (M) | Properties of Gaussian beams | Ch 3/4 | ||||
Resonant Cavities | 09/27 (W) | Resonant Optical Cavities | Ch 6 | |||
10/02 (M) | Finesse and Lifetime | Ch 6 | ||||
Atomic Radiation | 10/04 (W) | Dipole Oscillator Model | Ch 7/13 | HW6 | (W) Oct 11 | HW6Sol |
10/16 (M) | Einstein coefficients | Ch 7 | HW7 | (M) Oct 23 | HW7Sol | |
10/18 (W) | Linewidth and Amplification | Ch 7 | ||||
10/23 (M) | Broadening | Ch 7 | HW8 | (M) Oct 30 | HW8Sol | |
Laser Oscillation | 10/25 (W) | Laser Oscillations | Ch 8 | |||
10/30 (M) | Saturated gain and amplifier | Ch 8 | HW9 | (M) Nov 6 | HW9Sol | |
11/1 (W) | Doppler-broadened saturated gain | Ch 8 | ||||
11/6 (M) | Laser linewidth and output power | Ch 8 | ||||
11/8 (W) | MT2 | |||||
Laser Properties | 11/13 (M) | 3- and 4-level systems. CW ring laser | Ch 9 | HW10 | (M) Nov 20 | HW10Sol |
11/15 (W) | Optimal coupling. Laser dynamics | Ch 9 | ||||
11/20 (M) | Q-switching | Ch 9 | HW11 | (W) Nov 28 | HW11Sol | |
11/22 (W) | Thanks giving | |||||
11/27 (M) | " | Ch 9 | ||||
11/29 (W) | Mode Locking | Ch 9 | HW12 | (W) Dec 06 | HW12Sol | |
11/04(M) | " | Ch 9 | ||||
12/06(W) | ||||||
12/11(M) | Final: comprehensive |