The course will provide important theoretical techniques relevant to Quantum Technologies.
Solid-State Lasers (SUPASSL)
Lecturer: Alan Kemp
Institution: Strathclyde
Hours Equivalent Credit: 14
Assessment: Assessed tutorial assignment
Course Summary
An introduction to the physics, engineering, and thermal management of solid-state lasers, in particular diode-pumped solid-state lasers. Topics covered include: the underlying science and properties of lasers, e.g. energy levels, stimulated emission, population inversion, gain, threshold and slope efficiency; laser rate equations; common solid-state laser designs, including gain media, optical pumping schemes, operational modes (continuous wave, tuneable and pulsed); approaches to and modelling of thermal management in solid-state and semiconductor lasers; and laser case studies, including semiconductor disk lasers (VECSELs), and the uses of diamond in lasers.
Institution: Heriot-Watt
Hours Equivalent Credit: 10
Assessment: Online Assessment
Course Summary
Institution: Strathclyde
Hours Equivalent Credit: 24
Assessment: Essay (60%) and Presentation (40%)
Course Summary
The course is beneficial to students interested in the interaction of laser light with atoms and materials. It provides useful theoretical and numerical skills that have become basics in many research fields in quantum optics, photonics, quantum information processes, light- matter interaction and their applications. Topics covered include: second quantization, raising and lowering operators, density matrix approach, the Lindblad form of decay rates, two and three level atoms, Rabi oscillations, electromagnetically induced transparency, coherent population trapping, enhanced refractive indices, slow light, sub-natural line widths, self-focusing, spatial solitons during propagation, light-matter interaction in optical cavities, Maxwell- Bloch equations, optical bistability, cavity solitons, parametric down- conversion and optical parametric oscillators.