• Lab manual for group members 

  • ver: 2025 04 15 (login into your IU account to get access.)

• IU student resources

  • • Grad Student Handbook (pdf download) from Luddy 

• Student Opportunities (updated)

  • • Scholarships: Optica Scholarships | SPIE Fellowships | Burroughs Wellcome Fund 

    • Fellowships: Schmidt Science Fellowship (For PhD students about to graduate)

• Tutorials and information to get you "up-and-running" in our lab

Absolutely necessary foundational concepts 

• • • Optical alignment basics (video) (notes), especially walking the beam

    • Comprehensive lecture notes on Geometrical Optics by late Prof Greivenkamp 

Critical advance concepts

• • • Ultrafast optics lecture notes by Profs  Rick Trebino, Daniel Mittleman (IU account login required)

    • MIT OCW lecture on optics (both geometrical & wave) 

    • Microscopy basics by [Olympus] [Zeiss] [Nikon]

Selected readings for specific research topics

• Structured light: [Tutorials & Overview] [Diffraction-free wave-packet] [Spatiotemporial OAM]

• Optical coherence tomography [1][2]

• Quantum optics [Github notes] [QIUP tutorial]

• Meta-optics [selected papers]

  Other complementary resources 

• • • Basics of working in an optical lab [Request through PI. Our lab has paid access.]

    • Mike Snow Modern Optics notes

    • Basic overview of geometrical and wave optics by Dr. Chih-Wei (C. W.) Lai 

    • MIT OCW lecture on nanoscale imaging

• Vendors {disclaimer: non-incentivized list}

This list only serves as a starting point for you to explore places where you can find components for your research.

• • • Optics and opto-mechanics: Thorlabs, Newport, Edmund Optics, Eksmaoptics, OptoSigma, Hamamatsu

    • Gratings: Wasatch, Ibsen, Richardson, Lightsmyth

    • Fiber: Thorlabs, Ozoptics, FIS (incl. fiber cleaning tools)

    • Nonlinear crystals: Covesion

    • GRIN lens, miniaturized optics GRINtech, GoPhoton

    • Photon counting equipment [1] [2] [3]

    • Lasers [1]  [2]  [3] [4]

    • General electronics Digikey, Mouser

    • Mechanical: McMasterCarr VitaNeedle

    • Spatial light modulators: Santec, Holoeye

    • Laser safety goggles: OptoSigma, Kentek, Thorlabs

    • Incubators: Tokaihit, okolab

• Free online calculators

  • • Optics Toolbox [Gratings, pulses, dispersion etc]

    • Gaussian beam calculations

    • SPDCalc 

    • SNLO (SNLO help and examples) [useful for selecting nonlinear crystals and modeling their performances]

    • Refractive index [data and charts of wavelength-dependent refractive index of glass and other types of materials]

    • Gratings [simple tool to model grating behavior]

    • Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (NLSE) simulation

    • Digitize handwritten math 

    • Wolfram Alpha [math computational tool e.g., solving analytic eq.]

• Outside reading / literature

  • • Feynman Lectures on Physics

    • E&M lectures & discussions by Prof Mansuripur; by Prof Kaplunovsky; UIUC Physics Van

    • Free online tutorial on optics basics by Ansys

    • Webinars on polarization.

    • FDTD online book by Dr. Schneider

    • Vitual tour of facility scale optical labs ELI; LIGO

• Professional development

  • • Tools to enhance your presentations (poster/powerpoint): BioArt, Optical diagrams, IU logos

    • Digitizing handwritten math notes using Mathpix

    • Tips on how to prepare and write journal papers [1]

    • Email etiquette [1][2]

    • Time converter between time zones 

    • Terrence Tao's words of wisdom