EE 424 (was EE 414) – Principles and Applications of Lasers and Masers

Designation:

Senior/Grad-level technical elective for Electrical Engineering students

Catalog Data:

Introduction to principles of laser amplifiers and oscillators; applications of lasers to communications and holography. Prerequisite: EE 320, or E SC 400H, or PHYS 400.

Prerequisites by topic:

  1. Introduction to Electro-Optical Engineering (EE 320)
  2. Electromagnetics Fields (E SC 400H or Physics 400)

Course Objectives:

To provide students with the basic working knowledge of lasers in current engineering technologies and application principles.

Topics:

  1. Electromagnetic theory (Chapter 1)
  2. Propagation of rays and spherical waves (Chapter 2); Propagation of optical beams in homogenous and guiding media
  3. Optical resonators (Chapter 4)
  4. Quantum theory of atomic system (Extra Lecture Notes)
  5. Interaction of radiation with atomic system (Chapter 5)
  6. Theory of laser oscillation (Chapter 6)
  7. Laser system (Chapter 7)
  8. Electro-optic modulation of light (Chapter 9)
  9. Interaction of light and sound-acousto-optic (Chapter 12)

Class/laboratory schedule:

Two 75-minute lectures. No lab.

Computer Usage:

Some of the homework needs computer solutions.

Contribution to meeting the professional component:

This course provides students with the basic principles of lasers and related optical and photonic devices and a working knowledge of these modern optical devices in current technologies. It also serves to broaden the students’ knowledge and prepare them for graduate research.

Relationship to program outcome:

  1. Graduate will be able to design laser beam oscillator and beam propagation.
  2. Graduate will be able to work with all current lasers in wide spread use such as semiconductor lasers, solid state lasers, etc. and their applications in communication and other optoelectronics industries.
  3. Graduate will be able to understand and use equations, formulae and other general theories related to high-resolution spectroscopy, laser beam propagation, optical modulation and communication.