Ciro D’Amico
Programme et objectifs de cours
Année Academique 2014-2015, Master 1
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Title of the course : Optics in anisotropic media
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Hours : 30h (10h CM + 12h TD + 8h TP)
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Teacher : Ciro D’Amico
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Objective of the course : The aim of the course is to give an introductory theoretical description of
classical light manipulations that can be done by exploiting dielectric materials birefringence
property (splitting polarization components in the space and retarding them in the time, phasematching of two different wavelengths …). At the end of the course, the importance of crystal
birefringence for generating and detecting Terahertz (THz) waves will be discussed.
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Prerequisites : basics of electromagnetism (Physics), linear and matrix algebra (Math)
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Program of the course :
1) Propagation of light waves in isotropic media (overview, 1h CM)
- Transmission, absorption and dispersion in a dielectric medium
2) Polarization of light (2h CM + 2h TD)
- Polarization states (linear, circular, and elliptic)
- Formalisms : Jones matrixes, Stock’s parameters, Poincare’s sphere
- Reflection and refraction at interfaces in s and p polarization (the Brewster’s angle)
3) Propagation of light waves in an anisotropic medium (3h CM + 4h TD)
- Dielectric Tensor
- Index ellipsoid and index surface. Optical axes
- Uniaxial and biaxial media
- Thin birefringent waveplates and polarizing splitters (prisms of Wollaston …)
- Birefringent waveguides photoinscribed in glasses (via ultrashort lasers)
4) Birefringence induced by electric and magnetic field (2h CM + 3h TD)
- Induced linear birefringence: Pockels effect
- Induced quadratic birefringence: static Kerr effect
- Induced circular birefringence: Faraday effect
5) Birefringence and 2nd order nonlinear processes (2h CM + 3h TD)
Ciro D’Amico
Programme et objectifs de cours
Année Academique 2014-2015, Master 1
- Doubling crystals, frequency doubling and phase matching
- Rectifying crystals, optical rectification and phase matching
- Generating and detecting THz waves in a ZnTe crystal
TP organization (8h):
- 2 TP of 4h each
- TP1: Study of birefringence properties of a Calcite crystal
- TP2: Study of Pockels effect
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Bibliography (partial) :
1) M. Born & E. Wolf, Principle of Optics, Pergamon Press, 1980
2) Robert W. Boyd, Nonlinear Optics, Academic Press, 2008