The field of fiber optics traces its transformation from a 19th century parlor trick to constituting the backbone of our modern internet. Exploration of aspects of nonlinear fiber optical systems and harnessing their capabilities for superior communication and sensing systems is an ongoing research pursuit. This course will delve into the world of nonlinear fiber optics from theoretical and experimental angles supplemented by numerical simulations.
Instructor : Dr. Debanuj Chatterjee (Webpage)
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Lille, France
Basic idea on differential equations and elementary calculus
Basic idea on numerical simulations (any programming language)
Typically suited for 2nd year Bachelors students
Lecture 1 : Introduction to Maxwell's equations (1 hour)
Course introduction
What is a fiber?
History of Maxwell's equations : Gauss, Faraday, Ampere, Maxwell and Heavyside
Lecture 2 : EM waves and speed of light (1 hour)
Deriving wave equation from Maxwell's equation
Existence of EM waves and calculating its speed
Fizeau's measurement of the speed of light
Bending of light in a medium
Lecture 3 : Historical perspectives of fibers and microwaves (1 hour)
Doppler effect and radar technology
History and evolution of radar technology
History of evolution of fiber optics
Microwave photonics and electronic warfare
Lecture 4 : Parametric amplifiers and child on a swing (1 hour)
History of fiber optics
Physics of child on a swing
Physics of fiber parametric amplifiers
Lecture 5 : Overview of optical fibers
Single and multimode operation (contd. in Lecture 8)
Designing a SMF
Fabrication of optical fibers
Lecture 6 : Numerical simulation of Maxwell's equations in a fiber with MEEP (Guest Lecture by Ayan Mondal, University of Lille) (1 hour)
Introduction to MEEP
Defining boundary and parameters in MEEP
Solving Maxwell's equation with fiber geometry
Simulating LP modes, Hybrid modes, directional coupler
Lecture 7 : Presentation by students (0.5 hour)
Lecture 8 : LP modes and nonlinear effects in optical fibers (1 hour)
Solving for LP modes (contd. from Lecture 5)
Nonlinear effect in fiber
Raman scattering
Brillouin scattering
Kerr effect
Kerr effect
Self-phase modulation
Cross-phase modulation
Four-wave mixing
Multiwave model for fiber optical parametric amplifier
Student presentation
Lecture 9 : Numerical simulation of light propagation in nonlinear fibers with split step Fourier method with MATLAB (2 hours)
Nonlinear Scrödinger equation
Split-step Fourier method
Simulating a similariton in passive fiber configuration
Student presentation
The evaluation in the course will be based on presenting a research paper (of your choice) in fiber optics to the other students
Duration of presentation : 3 mins + 1 mins questions