Departments' graduate courses

Contents: Chapters from "Laser Fundamentals" 2nd edition by William Slifvast

12 meetings of 2 hours; typically, after a brief introduction the students are grouped (max 4 persons) for a 45 min discussion of the contents of today's lecture. This will require reading the chapter(s) before the meeting. The discussion is followed by a lecture ("efterläsning") of about 45 min.

Meeting 1
Chapter(s) 1-2
Contents: Fundamentals of electromagnetic radiation, Maxwell's equations. Wave properties

Meeting 2
Chapter(s) 3
Contents: Quantum properties of atoms

Meeting 3
Chapter(s) 4, 6
Contents: Radiative transitions, black-body radiation, stimulated emission

Meeting 4
Chapter(s) 5
Contents: Quantum properties of molecules and solids

Meeting 5
Chapter(s) 7
Contents: Population inversion, gain and gain saturation

Meeting 6
Chapter(s) 8, 9, 10
Contents: Laser amplifiers, Population inversion in 3 and 4-level systems

Meeting 7
Chapter(s) 11, 12
Contents: Laser cavity modes. Gaussian beams

Meeting 8
Chapter(s) 13
Contents: Laser cavities and cavity effects.

Meeting 9
Chapter(s) 14, 15
Contents: Examples of lasers

Meeting 10
Chapter(s) 16
Contents: Manipulation of laser light, Parametric oscillations, SHG

Meeting 11
Chapter(s) Journal papers
Contents: Laser spectroscopy - when do you need a laser?

Meeting 12
Chapter(s) Journal papers
Contents: Experiments with pulsed lasers - temporal resolution