Fundamental Concepts

Course Description

Please note: The course descriptions and instructors listed below are NOT final, it is possible that circumstances beyond our control could necessitate alterations.

2024: Offered remotely from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily

June 3, Monday

Geometrical Optics, Professor Jim Zavislan (Rochester)

Paraxial optics raytracing, cardinal points and conjugate relations, Lagrange invariant, stops and pupils, vignetting, common optical systems (cameras, telescopes, microscopes, and relay systems).

June 4, Tuesday

Interference and Diffraction, Professor Nick Vamivakas (Rochester)

June 5, Wednesday

Electromagnetic Waves, Professor Andrew Berger (Rochester)

Maxwell’s equations, constitutive relations, positive and negative refractive indices, Lorentz and Drude models, angular spectrum, chromatic dispersion, plane waves, polarization, reflection and refraction, critical angle, Brewster angle, total internal reflection, thin-film stacks, Bragg mirrors, surface waves, scalar and vector potentials, radiation from electric dipoles.

June 6, Thursday

A Survey of Lasers and Principles of Operation, Professor Will Renninger (Rochester)

The first decade after the first laser was built in 1960, one often heard it described as an invention searching for an application, during the following three decades lasers systems were often multi-hundreds of thousands of dollar investment around which laboratories were built, but recently they have become commodities that are essential to almost every industrial and commercial sector. We will review the physical and engineering principles underlying the various types of lasers, define the basic parameters by which they are characterized, and then survey the myriad types of lasers that have been developed.

June 7, Friday

Physics of Light Matter Interactions, Professor Nick Vamivakas (Rochester)

Introduction to the particle and wave views of both light and matter. Physical descriptions of light generation and detection. Quantum engineering of optoelectronic devices and a survey of quantum technologies.