Undergraduate core course for Engineering Physics Bachelor of Technology Program at IIT Bombay.
Course code: PH 421
Syllabus: Non-linear optical response of the medium, origin of the optical non-linearities (second and third order susceptibilities), classical and quantum pictures, a synopsis of nonlinear optical processes. Electromagnetic wave propagation in nonlinear medium, coupled wave equations for three wave mixing, Manley-Rowe relation, second harmonic generation- weak and strong coupling regimes, phase matching considerations, birefringence phase matching, harmonic generation with focused Gaussian beams, Difference frequency generation, optical parametric generation, optical parametric oscillators and amplifies. Third order nonlinear optical processes, four wave mixing, intensity dependent refractive index, self focusing, degenerate four wave mixing and its applications, optical bistability and optical logic, stimulated Raman and Brillouin scatterings, Raman gain amplifiers, plasmonics and applications Photonic crystals- an introduction to their band structure, nonlinear optical processes such as SHG and optical bistability in photonic crystals and applications.
Year taught (by AK): Fall, 2020
Class strength: 56 students
Projects (2020):
Due to the lockdown, classes had to be conducted online and we could not do lab demos that I had initially planned to accompany the theory.
So with the consent of students, we experimented in this course with the idea of an executable paper for the student projects. Here the students reproduce an already published peer reviewed work. Partly inspired from here.
Based on their submitted work, I see that students did struggle a lot (this is an undergraduate course), but to my surprise, many seem to have done quite a good job in not only understanding and reproducing the papers, but also talking about new ideas that could arise from this work.
Some students mentioned to me that they emailed the corresponding authors of the papers for clarification and received timely and encouraging replies. Special thanks to all such researchers for helping out!
The code for all these projects is available publicly here. A YouTube playlist where each student group explains their work is available here.
Year taught (by AK): Fall, 2021
Class strength: 47 students
Projects (2021): No projects this semester because the students voted against having them.
Year taught (by AK): Fall, 2022
Class strength: 72 students
Projects (2022): All executable papers and associated videos are available here.
Year taught (by AK): Fall, 2023
Class strength: 66 students
Projects (2023): All executable papers and associated videos are available here.