Unit OPTIC AND MODERN PHYSICS
- Course
- Optics and optometry
- Study-unit Code
- A002463
- Location
- TERNI
- Curriculum
- Ottica avanzata
- Teacher
- Giovanni Carlotti
- Teachers
-
- Giovanni Carlotti
- Hours
- 42 ore - Giovanni Carlotti
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2022
- Offered
- 2024/25
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Microfisico e della struttura della materia
- Academic discipline
- FIS/04
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- ITALIAN
- Contents
- Impact of Optics in Twentieth Century Physics. Advanced optical technologies and their use in the field of physics.
- Reference texts
- G. Gamow
Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory .
S.O. Kasap. Optoelectronics and Photonics - Principles and Practices
Additional material provided by the Teacher - Educational objectives
- The main objective of the course is to illustrate how some of the essential ideas of modern physics have developed around optics and how these ideas, in turn, needed optics to establish themselves. The student will become aware of the great importance, constant in the temporal development of Physics, of its discipline for fundamental research.
The main skills that the course aims to transmit are:
- know how to frame the acquired notions in a broad conceptual and historical context;
- knowing how to grasp the fundamental potential of discovery embedded into experiments, techniques, tools typical of the practice of Optics. - Prerequisites
- Arguments of the Physics courses of the first two years
- Teaching methods
- Face-to-face lectures; use of multimedia material
- Learning verification modality
- The exam includes an oral test which consists of a discussion aimed at ascertaining the level of knowledge and understanding achieved by the student on the theoretical and methodological contents indicated in the program. The oral test will allow you to verify the student's communication skills with language skills and independent organization of the presentation on the same topics with theoretical content.
For information on support services for students with disabilities and/or DSA, please refer to the page http://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa - Extended program
- Situation of Physics at the end of the nineteenth century. Aether hypothesis and formulation of the theory of special relativity. Michelson Morley Experience. Black body radiation. Stefan-Boltzman law and Wien's laws. Raileigh-Jeans attempt. Plank's hypothesis. Quantization of energy and formulation of the law relating to spectral density as a function of frequency and temperature. Photoelectric effect and its interpretation. The photon. Compton effect.
Recalls on Rutherford's experiment and Bohr's atomic model. Stationary states. De Broglie hypothesis. Schroedinger equation. Probabilistic interpretation of the wave function. Comparison with the D'Alambert equation for electromagnetic waves. Dispersion of the free particle. Stationary solutions. Free particle and wavepacket dispersion. Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
Notes on the application of the Schroedinger equation to one-dimensional problems: step and potential barrier. Tunnel effect. Infinite, one-dimensional and three-dimensional potential hole. Harmonic oscillator. Potential well of finite height. Hydrogen atom. Energy levels, orbitals and quantum numbers.
Introduction to lasers. Stimulated emission. Einstein coefficients. Population inversion. Threshold gain coefficient and pumping mechanisms. Two, three and four level lasers. Homogeneous and non-homogeneous laser line broadening mechanisms. Natural enlargement and by the Doppler effect. Coherence time and length. Longitudinal and transverse modes.
Optical cavities. Gaussian beams, transverse modes and stability conditions. Pulsed lasers. Mode locking and Q-Switcing.
Recall on the quantum description of the electron gas in metals. Energy bands and semiconductor materials. LED and diode laser. Materials and technologies.
Guided propagation in thin layers. TE and TM modes, even and odd. Mode dispersion. Number V. Symmetrical and asymmetrical guide.
Index jump optical guides. Guided modes in LP approximation. Attenuation. Material dispersion, intermodal, intramodal and polarization. Graded index fibers.
Coupled modes theory. Synchronous and asynchronous, directional and counter-directional coupling. Examples and applications.
Recall on the propagation of light in anisotropic crystals. Delay foils. Electro-optic effect. Longitudinal and transversal electro-optic modulators. Acousto-optical effect. Bragg and Raman-Nath modulators.
Optical spectroscopy. Grating-based spectroscopes, Michelson and Fabry Perot interferometers.
Light intensity detectors. Responsivity. Photomultipliers. Photoconductive detectors. Photodiodes: photoconductive mode and photovoltaic mode. Noise and frequency response. Solar cells and conversion of solar energy into electricity.