Lectures

Teachers Val Zwiller (zwiller@kth.se) and Ali Elshaari (elshaari@kth.se).

Lecture schedule check the course schedule.

Book Please bring your book (E. Hecht, Optics) to the lectures as we will sometimes discuss material from the book

Table of contents The table below lists the topics covered by each lecture. There are also problem classes (calculation exercises) accompanying the course.

Activity

Content

Lecture 1

Introduction: What is light?, Maxwell's equations, photons. Hecht 1,3:1-3, 3:6.

Lecture 2

Geometrical optics, thin and thick lenses mirrors.

Hecht 5:1-5, 6:1.

Lecture will be over zoom

Exercise 1

Questions are posted on Canvas before the session. In addition to homework for the next session.

Lecture 3

Refractive index, dispersion, scattering, reflection, refraction, Fermat’s principle, total internal reflection, Goos-Hänchen shift, Fresnel’s equations, Brewster angle.

Hecht 3:5, 4:1-7.

Lecture 4

Optical systems: Fibers, human eye, microscope, telescope.

Hecht 5:6-7.

Exercise 2

Questions are posted on Canvas before the session. In addition to homework for the next session.

Lecture 5

Telescope, aberrations, optical tweezers, near-field optical microscope, resolution.

Hecht 5:7-8, 6:3, 10:2.6.

Moved to either 8:00-10:00 or 13:00-15:00

Lecture 6

Polarization, birefringence, Stokes vectors.

Hecht 8:1-6, 8:13.

Exercise 3

Questions are posted on Canvas before the session. In addition to homework for the next session.

Lecture 7

Polarisation, Stokes vectors, retarders, elasto-optic, magneto-optic and electro-optic effects, optical activity, LCD.

Hecht 8:7, 8:10-13.

Lecture 8

Jones vectors. Quantum entanglement, Bell measurement

Exercise 4

Questions are posted on Canvas before the session. In addition to homework for the next session.

Lecture 9

Interference, temporal and spatial coherence, double-slit experiment, Michelson interferometer. Hecht 9:1-4

Lecture 10

Diffraction, single slit, double slit generalization to many slits, spectrometers 10:1-2

Exercise 5

Questions are posted on Canvas before the session. In addition to homework for the next session.

Answering questions from last session.

Lecture 11

Fourier optics. Hecht 10:2, 11:1-3.

Fabry-Perot interferometer. Hecht 9:6

Exercise 6

Questions are posted on Canvas before the session. In addition to homework for the next session.

Answering questions from last session.

Lecture 12

Holography, Michelson stellar interferometer.

Hecht 13:3, 12:5

Exercise 7

Questions are posted on Canvas before the session. In addition to homework for the next session.

Answering questions from last session.

Lecture 13

Photodetectors, slow light, superluminal light, metamaterials.

Hecht 7:2.2, 7:4 (p. 329-332), 3:5

Exercise 8

Questions are posted on Canvas before the session. In addition to homework for the next session.

Answering questions from last session.

Lecture 14

Solar energy

1¶ 1, 2:1-9, 3:1-3, 3:6¶ Introduction, waves in general, Maxwell's equations, photons¶ 2¶ 3:5, 4:1-2¶ Light in matter, propagation of light¶ 3¶ 4:3-7, 4:9¶ Reflection and refraction¶ 4¶ 5:1-5, 6:1¶ Geometrical optics, lenses, mirrors, systems of lenses¶ 5¶ 5:6-8¶ Optical fibers. Optical instruments: microscope, camera, telescope, adaptive optics, scanning near-field optical microscope¶ 6¶ 6:2-3¶ Optical instruments continued. Eye. Aberrations.¶ 7¶ 12:1-4, 13:3¶ Coherence, holography¶ 8¶ 8:1-6¶ Polarisation and birefringence¶ 9¶ 8:7-12, 7:1-3¶ Polarisation continued. Group velocity.¶ 10¶ 9:1-3¶ Introduction to interference, Young's double slit interference.¶ 11¶ 9:4-7¶ Interferometers: Michelson, Mach-Zehnder, Sagnac, Fabry-Perot, antireflection coatings¶ 12¶ 10:1-2, 11¶ Diffraction, Fourier optics, diffraction gratings¶ 13¶ 12:5¶ Hanbury-Brown Twiss interferometer, light sensors¶ 14¶ Quantum entanglement¶