Ultrafast Optics and Spectroscopy

Class Details

Timings - 12 PM - 1 PM (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday); Classroom - Room 108, AB1.

Google classroom - Please join using your IISERB email id. Students with non-IISERB emails will be removed.

Grading policy - Quiz 15%; Presentation 15%; Mid Sem - 30%; End Sem - 40%

Quiz scheduled during class on 05/02/2026 (Thursday)

Topics

Laser basics - Ray tracing and Gaussian optics, optical cavities; Ultrafast pulse generation and characterizations; Pulse shaping; Amplified lasers; Frequency combs; Terahertz pulses; Attosecond pulses; Ultrafast spectroscopy basics

Text Books

• O. Svelto, Principles of Lasers (Springer, 2008)

• J. T. Verdeyen, Laser Electronics (Prentice Hall, Inc., 1995)

• A. M. Weiner, Ultrafast Optics (John Wiley & Sons, 2009)

• R. Trebino, Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating: The Measurement of Ultrashort Laser Pulses  (Springer, 2000)

• E. Hecht and A. R. Ganesan, Optics (Pearson, 2020)

• R. Boyd, Nonlinear Optics (Elsevier, 2003)

• M. Fox, Quantum Optics (Oxford University Press, 2006)

Notes

Correctness/accuracy not guaranteed. Please report any mistakes that are found.

• Properties of lasers

• Light-matter interaction and population inversion

• ABCD matrix

• Gaussian beams

• Gaussian beams in cavity

Assignments

• Assignment 1

• Assignment 2

• Assignment 3

• Assignment 4

• Assignment 5

• Assignment 6

Resources

• He-Ne laser - Thorlabs

• Psst! simulations - Please follow the instructions to install the software and play with it.