Prerequisites

Part IB Physics A; Part II Electrodynamics and Optics

Learning Outcomes and Assessment

Modern optics and quantum optics form the basis of many breakthroughs and current topics in science (e.g. astronomy, microscopy, quantum computing) as well as the foundation of large parts of today’s technology (lasers, fibre optics….)

Building on the foundation from earlier years and courses, this lecture course builds a quantitative understanding of many modern applications of optics, including modern microscopy, lasers, and quantum optics as well as several other techniques and applications.

Synopsis

Optics and optical Instruments (~8 lectures)
Geometric optics; optical instruments (microscopes, telescopes); 
Raytracing; Imaging aberrations; Chromatic aberrations

Review of wave phenomena (diffraction, interference, interferometry; temporal and spatial coherence; partial coherence; polarization);  
Microscopy methods (bright field, dark field, phase contrast, confocal and fluorescence, super-resolution); Fourier methods; Adaptive optics;  Fibre optics

Nonlinear optics and active optical components (~3 lectures)
Non-linear optics (non-linear susceptibility, harmonic generation, Kerr effect); Electro-optics & Acousto-optics

Lasers (~5 lectures) 
Resonators, cavities; transverse modes & gaussian beams, ABCD matrices; Gain mechanisms; Rate equations; Line-widths; noise; types of CW lasers; pulsed lasers, modelocking, optical frequency combs

Quantum optics (~6 lectures) 
Quantization of electromagnetic field; photons & coherent states; Hanbury-Brown Twiss; coherent matter-light interactions (Two-level system, Optical Bloch equations, Bloch sphere); Cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED); Hong–Ou–Mandel; Three-level systems; Electromagnetic induced transparency (EIT); Squeezed states; Entanglement; Boson sampling