Programme

Part 0 - Recalls of Wave Optics
• Wave nature of light
• Polarization
• Interference
• Diffraction

Part 1 - Linear Optics and Laser
• Optical cavity - Fabry Perot
• Longitudinal and transverse modes
• Gaussian modes
• Hermite-Gauss modes
• Einstein coefficients
• Rate equations
• Optical Bloch equations and Rabi oscillations
• Line broadening (Damping, saturation, Doppler, collisions)
• Laser operation mechanism
• Three- and four-level systems
• Mode locking

Part 2 - Nonlinear Optics
• Nonlinear polarization
• Nonlinear susceptibility
• Second-order nonlinear phenomena (SFG, DFG, SHG, SPDC)
• Phase matching
• Third-order nonlinear phenomena (THG, FWM, KERR)

Part 3 - Ultrafast Optics
• Ultrashort pulses
• Space-time coupling
• Chirped pulse amplification
• Generation of ultrashort pulses
• High Harmonic Generation (HHG)
• Characterization of ultrashort pulses
• Ultrafast spectroscopy

Core Documentation

Bibliografia
[1] Principles of lasers - O. Svelto
[2] Optics - E. Hecht
[3] Fundamentals of Photonics - B. Saleh, M. Teich
[4] Femtosecond laser pulses - C. Rulliere
[5] Nonlinear Optics - R. Boyd
[7] Characterization of ultrashort pulses - C. Dorrer, I. A. Walmsley
[8] Atomic Physics - Chris Foot

Attendance

Attendance is not mandatory but is always strongly recommended

Type of evaluation

The exam is oral and 2 written exemptions with open-ended questions are planned during the course.