Instructor: F. O. Ilday (www)

Office: SA-224 (phone: 1076x)
Office Hours: To be announced

Lectures: Mo 13:40 - 15:30 (SAZ-04) and Th 16:40 - 17:30 (SAZ-18)
TA: Askin Kocabas

Course Info (download course flyer [ pdf ])

Ultrafast optics will form the core, with considerable amount of nonlinear optics background to be provided for a fuller and more intuitive understanding. The main topics are: nonlinear and dispersive pulse propagation, soliton formation, theory of the nonlinear optical susceptibility, laser dynamics, mode-locking of lasers, ultrafast laser dynamics, common nonlinear optical processes. In addition, three active research subjects will be discussed as special topics. This year, they are: (i) optical frequency combs, (ii) ultrafast measurement techniques, and (iii) femtosecond materials processing. The subject of this course is a young and rapidly evolving field, touching increasingly broad areas of physics, nonlinear science, and electrical engineering. As a result, this will be a fast-paced and very colorful course. Many of the exercises and examples will be picked from recent research papers. There will be a term project, where you will get the chance to learn about a "hot" subject or even do original research if you are sufficiently motivated.

Requirements and Level:
The class will be taught in a largely self-contained manner. The course will be fast paced and a certain level of academic maturity is assumed on your part. Many of the exercises will require computer-based calculations using a simulation package developed in my research group. You may need to use your favorite math program (Matlab, Mathematica, etc) to make additional calculations and to plot some of the results. Nonlinear optics part will make use of SNLO (downloadable from http://www.as-photonics.com/SNLO).

Recommended Courses:
PHYS 316/EE 304: Electromagnetic Theory II (Maxwell's equations, wave propagation) PHYS 415/EE 428: Optics, PHYS 515: Advanced Optics or EE 429: Photonics 
PHYS 243: Methods of Mathematical Physics (intuitive command of math techniques needed) PHYS 325: Quantum Mechanics I

Reading Material:
Due to the nature of the subject, there is no single textbook that I will follow closely, however the following resources will be helpful.
Nonlinear Fiber Optics, Govind Agrawal (chapters 1-5)
Nonlinear Optics, Robert W. Boyd (chapters 1, 2 and 12)
Ultrafast Optics Lecture Notes, Franz Kaertner (available electronically)
Ultrafast Optics Lecture Notes, Rick Trebino (available online at http://www.physics.gatech.edu/gcuo/lectures/index.html)

Note that this webpage is for general information only and up-to-date information can be obtained from the course's Moodle page.