Courses Detail Information
ECE6301J – Nonlinear & Ultrafast Optics
Instructors:
Credits: 3 Credits
Pre-requisites: VE240 or 260 or 230
Description:
The course covers the two entangled topics in advanced optics: nonlinear optics & ultrafast optics. Students can gain the fundamental ideas about the modern optical technology through the course. Nonlinear optics is the study of phenomena that occur as a consequence of the modification of the optical properties of a material system by the presence of light. Typically, only laser light is sufficiently intense to modify the optical properties of a material system. One approach is to utilize ultrafast laser pulsed which is compressed in time domain to reach ultrahigh peak power in order to excite the optical nonlinearity. Nonlinear optical phenomena are “nonlinear” in the sense that they occur when the response of a material system to an applied optical field depends in a nonlinear manner on the strength of the optical field. This course is intended as an introduction to the wide field of phenomena and applications encountered in nonlinear optics and ultrafast optics. The theoretical foundation of nonlinear interaction between light and matter will be reviewed first, then related applications will be introduced.
Course Topics:
Formalism of wave propagation in nonlinear media; susceptibility tensor; second harmonic generation and three-wave mixing; phase matching; third order nonlinearities and four-wave mixing processes; stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering. Special topics: nonlinear optics in fibers, including solitons and self-phase modulation. Laser mode-locking and ultrashort pulse generation. C hirped-pulse amplification.