This is supplemental course information, designed to give you a fuller picture of the course and an expanded look at the topics covered. This is an unofficial document. The USC Course Catalog is the binding description of all university courses. Information such as books, materials covered, and the order of topics is subject to change. Please consult instructor for this semseter to get more upto date course information.
Catalogue 2006-07:
Fundamentals of light amplification; laser amplifiers and oscillators; atomic pumping; maser and laser systems; definitions of coherence; measurements in quantum electronics. Prerequisite: EE 470.
Textbook:
J.T. Verdeyen, Laser Electronics, (third edition)
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
The course will concentrate on chapters 7
through 11.
Course monitors:
Robert W. Hellwarth, George Pfleger
Professor of Electrical Engineering &
Professor of Physics
Ph. D., Oxford University
Course Objectives:
Many of the properties and interactions of light can be understood by considering that light
is composed of photons which are particles that have energy hf (h=Planck’s constant and f
is the frequency of the light in Hz), Much of the coherence properties of laser light can be
understood from thinking of a photon as a quantum of excitation of a particular mode of
the electromagnetic field. The atoms (ions, molecules, etc.) which emit or absorb these
photons can be thought of as existing only in “quantized” states, each of which has a
particular energy. In this course we derive all the most important quantitative
features of laser oscillators and amplifiers by compounding many events in which an atom
makes a transition from state i to state j while absorbing (or emitting) a photon of
frequency f according to Planck’s laW. These absorption and emission
processes are described by simple rate equations for three radiative processes:
1)absorption of a photon, 2) spontaneous emission of a photon and 3) stimulated emission
(the SE of LASER) of a photon. Nonradiative relaxation and “pumping” rates are added
from physical reasoning to complete a general theory of lasers. We then apply these
concepts to understand the pump requirements, average output powers, peak powers and
pulse widths under Q-switching and mode locking, for a variety of commonly used lasers.
The last five weeks, and five homework assignments, will be devoted to semiconductor
lasers. Only elementary differential equations need to be solved to obtain the wide range of
important practical formulae which we will develop.
Examinations:
One midterm and one final examination. Grades from 0 – 4.3 will be assigned using the
class curve. The final course grade G will be computed using the formula:
G = [homework]/4 + [midterm]/4 + [final]/2
Prepared by: Robert Hellwarth Date: 10/06
