Aims

This course will provide the fundamentals of electromagnetic fields, and present in detail the applications of optics. The course will provide concepts and basic notions on light waves, their nature, their description and their physical characteristics, and also outline the main areas of optics application. The course provides the fundamentals of geometrical optics (refraction and reflection, lenses, microscopes etc.), of wave optics (interference, diffraction, polarization) and quantum optics (concept of photon emission properties / absorption of light, lasers) .


Program

Basics of electro-magnetic fields. The geometrical optics and optics of light rays: reflection, refraction, lenses, complex systems of optical elements- Optical Matrix - Maxwell's equations - The phenomenon of polarization (Jones and Stokes description) - Interference and Diffraction: principles, Young experiment, Bragg condition, Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction, gaussian beams - Quantum Optics: light emission and absorption, optical spectral properties of materials, population inversion - Lasers basics and laser applications