B.Tech Physics

 

PH 306                         Lasers and Ultrafast Optics                   3-0-0-6

 

 

Syllabus: Laser physics: the Einstein coefficients, light amplification, the threshold condition, laser rate equations, line broadening mechanisms, cavity modes, optical resonator, quality factor, mode selection, introduction to gas lasers, solid state lasers, and semiconductor lasers. Ultrafast optics: introduction to ultrashort pulses (nano-, pico-, femto-, attosecond pulses): generation and propagation; Principles of mode locking; Pulse compression; Laser amplifiers; Interferometric autocorrelation; Ultrafast measurement techniques: time resolved measurement, electro-optic sampling. Applications: Nonlinear optical susceptibilities, second harmonic generation, self-focusing; Step index and graded index optical fibers, attenuation and dispersion, brief introduction to fiber optic communications; Optical solitons.

 

Texts:

  1. W. T. Silfvast, Laser Fundamentals, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  2. B. E. A. Saleh and M. C. Teich, Fundamentals of Photonics, 2nd Edition, Wiley, 2007.
  3. A. Weiner, Ultrafast Optics, John Wiley & Sons, 2008.
  4. J. C. Diels and W. Rudolph, Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena, 1st Edition, Academic Press, 1996.
  5. O. Svelto and D. C. Hanna, Principles of Lasers, Springer, 1998.
  6. R. W. Boyd, Nonlinear Optics, 3rd Edition, Academic Press, 2007.
  7. A. Ghatak and K. Thyagarajan, Optical Electronics, Cambridge University Press, 2009.