Optical Properties of Materials
Oral Qualifying Exam - Optical Properties of Materials
Topics Covered: This exam covers two parts, basic optics and materials that have interesting optical properties/device applications.
Optics:
- Maxwell’s Equations & wave Equations
- reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, scattering, & dispersion
- imaging theory, thin lenses
- optical anisotropy: birefringence, circular dichroism
- waveguide optics
- electro-optic, strain-optic and thermo-optic effects
- surface plasmons
- stimulated and spontaneous emission; lasers
- optical materials metrology: ellipsometry, prism coupling, forms of optical microscopy (two photon, phase contrast, dark field, etc.), photoluminescence, etc.
Optical Materials and Devices:
- liquid crystals and LCDs
- electro-optical materials
- electroluminescent materials & LEDs
- transparent conductors
- semiconductor optoelectronics
- semiconductor quantum dots
- solar cells, photodetectors
- materials for integrated optics, lasers, modulators, etc.
- nonlinear optical materials
Suggested Texts: There are no comprehensive optical materials texts, and few if any such courses. Some useful books, each of which covers some subset of the topics above, are:
- “Optics,” by Hecht
- “Optical Materials: An Introduction to Selection and Application,” by Solomon Musikant
- “Essentials of Photonic,” by Alan Rogers
- “Optical Materials,” by Potter and Simmons
Related Course: Students may wish (but are not required) to take:
- MSE 488: Optical Materials.