Undergraduate Course: Lasers and Applications (PHYS11044)
Course Outline
| School |
School of Physics and Astronomy |
College |
College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type |
Standard |
Availability |
Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) |
SCQF Level 11 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits |
10 |
| Home subject area |
Undergraduate (School of Physics and Astronomy) |
Other subject area |
None |
| Course website |
http://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~wjh/teaching/lasers/ |
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| Course description |
Lasers are now commonplace throughout many aspects of everyday life, e.g. in CD players, telecoms, industrial processing, spectroscopy and many bioscience applications. The course starts with a review of the basic physics of optical cavities and the spontaneous/stimulated emission from materials leading to laser amplifiers and oscillators. Examples of atomic, ionic and molecular gas lasers are presented including systems for continuous wave and pulsed beam operation. The optical properties of laser cavities, and the optics of Gaussian beam are discussed. The final component of this course is a short review article on laser applications. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2010/11 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| King's Buildings | Lecture | | 1-11 | 10:00 - 10:50 | | | | | | King's Buildings | Lecture | | 1-11 | | | | 10:00 - 10:50 | |
| First Class |
Week 1, Monday, 10:00 - 10:50, Zone: King's Buildings. JCMB |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course a student should be able to demonstrate understanding of and be able to solve problems on:
1) absorption and spontaneous and stimulated emission in two level system, the effects of homogeneous and inhomogeneous line broadening, and the conditions for laser amplification,
2) operations of the Fabry-Perot cavity including mode separation and line-widths, laser gain conditions, gain clamping in both homogeneous and inhomogeneous line broadened media,
3) the four-level laser system, the simple homogeneous laser and its output behaviour and optimal operating conditions,
4) spectral properties of a single longitudinal mode, mode locked laser operation, schemes for active and passive mode locking in real laser system,
5) operations and basic properties of the most common laser types, He-Ne, Argon-ion, and carbon-dioxide, ruby, titanium sapphire, neodymium YAG and glass, knowledge of other main laser types,
6) matrix optics of the laser cavity and stability conditions,
7) basics of Gaussian beam in laser cavity and optical properties of laser output, design of stable laser cavities using Gaussian beam optics, the ABCD law for Gaussian beams.
In addition each student will undertake a review article on a particular laser application and present their findings in a short oral presentation.
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Assessment Information
Degree Examination, 85%
Short review on laser applications: 15% |
| Please see Visiting Student Prospectus website for Visiting Student Assessment information |
Special Arrangements
| Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser |
Dr Will Hossack
Tel: (0131 6)50 5261
Email: w.hossack@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary |
Mrs Linda Grieve
Tel: (0131 6)50 5254
Email: linda.grieve@ed.ac.uk |
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copyright 2010 The University of Edinburgh -
1 September 2010 6:35 am
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