General principles of atomic spectroscopy: experimental setups. Laser light scattering of complex fluids: auto-correlation technique. General principles of optical spectroscopy of semiconductors: photoluminescence experiments of nanostructured semiconductors
M. Born and E. Wolf, 'Principles of Optics', Cambridge University Press.
Principi dei laser, O.Svelto.
Dynamic light scattering B. J. Berne, R. Pecora, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, New York, 2000.
Semiconductor Optics by C.F.Klingshirn. Ultrashort laser pulse phenomena by J-C.Diels and W.Rudolph
Learning Objectives
Knowledge acquired: Basic concepts of the main experimental techniques for atomic, liquid and condensed matter spectroscopy: laser sources, detectors and experimental setups
Competence acquired: Experimental techniques in the field of optical spectroscopy for the measurement of different physical quantities which are relevant for the investigation of atoms, liquids and solids.
Skills acquired (at the end of the course):
The students will be able to implement common setups used for optical spectroscopy experiments.
Prerequisites
Courses required: Mandatory courses of Physics of Matter
Teaching Methods
Total hours of the course (including the time spent in attending lectures, seminars, private study, examinations, etc...):
300
Hours reserved to private study and other individual formative activities:
Frequency of lectures, practice and lab:
Recommended for lectures, Mandatory for laboratory
Office hours:
Teachers can be contacted every day by appointment
Type of Assessment
Oral exam with discussion of the laboratory reports
Course program
Course Contents (detailed program):
Monochromator and Fabry-Perot spectrometers, optical resonators. Gaussian beams. Optics, filters, polarizing optics. Lock-in amplifier. Super-heterodyne spectrum analyzer. Photodiodes and electronics for cw detection. Saturation spectroscopy. Operation and use of semiconductor lasers. Fluctuations and temporal correlation functions. Scattering vector. Homodyne and heterodyne detection. Digital correlator. Thermal and mechanical stabilization. General principles of optical spectroscopy of semiconductors: relaxation processes and typical scale times. Frequency- and time-resolved spectroscopy. Detectors and detection techniques for ultra-fast spectroscopy. Pulsed sources. General principles of Q-switching and mode-locking. Propagation of light pulses in linear and non-linear media. Experiments: a) Measurement of diffusion coefficient and hydrodynamic radius of nanoparticles. b) Saturation spectroscopy of Rb and measurement of hyperfine structure. c) Spectral characterization of a semiconductor laser. d) Auto-correlation measurement of a picosecond pulse. e) Measurements of luminescence and luminescence excitation in nanostructures. f) Measurement of the average intensity of scattered light as a function of the angle.