PHY F433 : Topics in Nonlinear Optics

Second Semester : 2022-23

In charge : Prasad A. Naik

(M W F 4 : C-308)

Office: Room # D-320/12

Physics Department
New Academic Block – D

Office phone : 832 2580 179

Cell phone : 998 1395 193
E.mail: prasadn@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in
 Class Composition

 19 students registered so far. ( +1 audit student)

 58% 2nd year [11]

 27% 3rd year [5]

 10% 4th year [2]

 5% 5th year [1]

 100 % students are Physics (major) [19]

 Course description
 Although the name of the course is “Topics in nonlinear optics”, basically the
course is on scientific applications of lasers.

 First twelve lectures are on nonlinear optics in solids /liquids /gases.

 Next twelve lectures are on nonlinear optical phenomena in plasmas.

 The remaining lectures are on other scientific applications of lasers viz.

a) Holography, b) Optical solitons, c) Nuclear fusion with lasers, and
d) Acceleration of charged particles with laser light.

 This course will be mostly concept and information based but mathematics
will be used wherever it helps to explain / understand the concepts better.

 No prior knowledge about lasers is required except that they are coherent,
intense sources of light.
 Course Content
Nonlinear optics in solids, liquids, gases: Lorentz model; properties
of tensor elements; Second order processes (second harmonic
generation, Pockels effect, optical parametric oscillator); phase Lecture
A (12) matching in crystals; Third order processes (third harmonic
1-12
generation, phase conjugation, Kerr effect, self-phase modulation,
Raman effect, Stimulated Raman scattering (Stokes / anti-Stokes),
Stimulated Brillouin scattering).

Nonlinear optical phenomena in plasmas: Light interaction with

plasma; stimulated Raman scattering, stimulated Brillouin scattering; Lecture
B (12) Concepts of ponderomotive force, second harmonic generation in
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plasma, self-focussing, above threshold ionization, odd harmonic
generation, optical field ionization, Coulomb explosion.

Other scientific applications of lasers: a) Laser Holography,

Lecture
C (12) b) Optical solitons, c) Inertial confinement fusion with lasers, and
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d) Acceleration of charged particles with laser light

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 Recommended books
 Nonlinear Optics, R.W. Boyd, Academic Press(imprint of Elsevier, USA).
 Lasers and Nonlinear Optics, B.B. Laud, New Age International (India).
 Lasers: Theory and Applications, K. Thyagarajan and A. K. Ghatak, Macmillan
Publishers India.
 Optical Electronics, A. K. Ghatak and K. Thyagarajan, Cambridge Univ. Press.

 Physics of Nonlinear optics, Y.V.G.S. Murti and C. Vijayan, Ane Books Pvt. Ltd. (India).

 These books cover nonlinear optics, holography, laser fusion etc. However,
no single text book will be followed.

 There are no text books for Section 2 and some topics in Section 3.
 The lecture presentations (.ppt files) will be available on the Quanta course server
after the lecture.
 The students are strongly encouraged to use books and internet to get extra
information about the topics taught in the class.
 Since no single text book is followed, students are strongly urged to attend the
classes and ask questions to understand thoroughly the topics covered.
 Evaluation
 As per the institute requirement, there will be two assignments, a mid-
semester examination, and a comprehensive examination.

 The first assignment will be one in the second week of February 2023.

 The second assignment will be in the third week of March 2023.

 Both will carry 15% weightage (total 30%).

 Mid-semester examination (scheduled on 16th March. 2023) will carry

30% weightage.

 Comprehensive examination (scheduled on 16th May 2023) will have

35% weightage.

 5% weightage will be for overall class attendance (Percentage attendance/20).

 The examinations (Mid-sem as well as Compre) will be open book type.

 Class note books (hand-written in pen in your handwriting) will be allowed,

but laptops, printed lecture ppts will not be allowed.

 Calculators will be required during exams, but mobiles will not be allowed. 6
 Evaluation

 Evaluation will be of four types

A) Problem solving

B) True or False, with reason

C) Explain a concept

D) Fill in the blanks (multiple choice)

 Assignments will not have fill in the blanks type questions.

 Mid-sem and Compre exams will have all four types of questions.

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 Consultation Hour
 Available for discussions related to the course on S 3-5 (10 hrs - 13 hrs.)
every week in my office (D 320/12) for the students.

 Can also be contacted on mobile phone (9981395193) .

 Queries by students via E.mail / SMS/ Whatsapp/ Signal messages are also
welcome. (prasadn@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in).

 Although interaction outside the class hours to solve difficulties is most

welcome, the students are strongly urged to stop the lecturer any time
during the lecture and ask to re-explain something they have not
understood.

 Common alt. slot: M 11, W11, Th 11, F11

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 Basics of a laser

Absorption

Spontaneous
emission

Stimulated
emission

The new photon is an exact replica of the incident photon having the
same phase, frequency, direction, polarization etc.
 Amplification by Stimulated Emission
 Suppose we have a large number of atoms, having electrons in a fixed excited state.

 The first photon (produced by say spontaneous emission) on interaction with an

atom will produce two identical photons (as photons are Bosons).

 These two identical photons will produce two more identical photons, which in turn
will keep producing more and more identical photons, all of which have same energy,
direction, phase, polarization etc. of the first photon.

 This mode of amplification of photon number, wherein one gets a bunch of identical
photons, is called “amplification by stimulated emission”.

 Such a bunch of identical photons constitutes “Laser light”, which is an acronym for

“Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” : LASER

Laser
beam

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 Time-line of the development of “LASER”
 1954 : First MASER (ammonia maser) by C. Townes group (J. Gordan, H. Zeiger).
 1960 : First LASER (ruby laser) by T.H. Maiman.
 Townes used the name “Optical maser” for lasers, as an extension of Maser
invented by him.
 The acronym “LASER” was coined by Graham Gould.
 The second laser was a Helium-Neon laser invented by Ali Javan and coworkers at
Bell Telephone Labs, USA, few months later in Dec. 1960. This laser operated at
1.15 μm in the infrared region.
 The well known red He-Ne laser operating at 6328 Å was invented by the same lab
18 months later in 1962.
 By 1966, eight different types of lasers were invented
(Ruby : 1960, He-Ne : 1960, Nd:glass : 1961, Semiconductor : 1962,
CO2 : 1963, Argon ion : 1964, He-Cd : 1966, Dye laser : 1966).
 The first Free Electron Laser was made by John Madey in 1971.
 X-ray laser was the last in 1985, 25 years after the first laser.
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 Some characteristics of a LASER
 Coherence :
 Spatial coherence (well-defined wave-front)
 Temporal coherence (highly mono-chromatic)

 Short pulse duration (down to few atto-second : 10-18 s)

 High beam energy (up to mega joules : 106 J)

 High peak power (up to petawatt : 1015 W)

 High intensity (up to 1021 W/cm-2)

 Highly directional (very low divergence)

 High focussability (sub-micron : 10-7 m)

Every laser beam / pulse need not have all the characteristics listed above.
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 End of Introduction Lecture

Contact : prasadn@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in

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