Principles of lasers, by O.Svelto
Principles of Optics, by M. Born and E. Wolf, Pergamon Press.
Learning Objectives
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.
Prerequisites
Mandatory courses of Physics of Matter
Teaching Methods
Plenary lectures and laboratory training
Further information
Students will be asked to prepare two long reports ( 10-20 pages) on the laboratory activity. Few introductory lessons are common to the courses of Laboratory of solid state physics and Laboratory of physics of liquids.
Office hours: By appointment from Monday to Friday
Website: Moodle platform
http://e-l.unifi.it
Type of Assessment
Oral exam with discussion of the laboratory reports
Course 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. Frequency- and time-resolved spectroscopy. Detectors and detection techniques for ultra-fast spectroscopy. Pulsed laser sources. Propagation of light pulses in linear and non-linear media.
Experiments: a) Saturation spectroscopy of Rb and measurement of hyperfine structure. b) Spectral characterization of a semiconductor laser.