"Version: 20220801"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

part I. Basics of photonics and lasers. 1. The photon and photonics -- 1.1. The photon -- 1.2. Branches of photonics -- 1.3. Maxwell's equations and their connection to optics -- 1.4. A few topics related to lasers and optics -- 1.5. Comparison of an electronic circuit and a photonic circuit -- 1.6. Nobel prizes related to lasers

2. Light-matter interaction and the essentials of spectroscopy -- 2.1. Light sources and types of spectra -- 2.2. Laser : a tool covering the EM spectrum -- 2.3. Photoelectric effect -- 2.4. Rutherford's experiment -- 2.5. Bohr's atomic model : atomic energy levels -- 2.6. Franck-Hertz experiment -- 2.7. Stern-Gerlach experiment : spin quantization -- 2.8. Compton effect -- 2.9. Quantum mechanical picture of matter -- 2.10. Raman spectroscopy

3. Polarization of light -- 3.1. EM waves and linearly polarized light -- 3.2. Types of polarization -- 3.3. Jones vector representation of polarization -- 3.4. Methods of generating polarized light -- 3.5. Change of state of polarization -- 3.6. Quarter-wave and half-wave plates -- 3.7. Polarized light in nature

4. Spontaneous and stimulated emission -- 4.1. Thermal radiation and Planck's law -- 4.2. Boltzmann statistics -- 4.3. Planck's law of radiation -- 4.4. Einstein's A and B coefficients

5. The Beer-Lambert law and the gain coefficient -- 5.1. The Beer-Lambert law -- 5.2. Absorption coefficient -- 5.3. Gain media -- 5.4. Gain coefficient -- 5.5. Round-trip gain -- 5.6. Gain saturation -- 5.7. Applications of the Beer-Lambert law

6. Population inversion with moderate pumping -- 6.1. Population inversion schemes -- 6.2. Rate equation analysis for a four-level system and a multilevel system -- 6.3. Typical laser systems

7. Pumping mechanisms and types of optical cavity -- 7.1. Pumping via electrical excitation -- 7.2. Optical pumping -- 7.3. Thermal and gas-dynamic pumping -- 7.4. Chemical pumping -- 7.5. Nuclear pumping -- 7.6. Pump-cavity geometries

8. Line-broadening mechanisms -- 8.1. The small-gain coefficient in practice -- 8.2. Spectral resolving power -- 8.3. Line broadening in He-Ne lasers -- 8.4. Harmonic oscillator -- 8.5. Broadening mechanisms -- 8.6. Correction of the small-gain coefficient -- 8.7. Voigt profile -- 8.8. The effect of amorphous or crystalline hosts -- 8.9. Hole burning and the Lamb dip

9. The Fabry-P�erot resonator -- 9.1. Modes in a two-dimensional cavity -- 9.2. Resonant cavity : the Fabry-P�erot resonator -- 9.3. FP etalon -- 9.4. Fresnel number -- 9.5. Mode pulling

10. Basic properties of lasers : directionality, brightness, and coherence -- 10.1. Directionality of a laser beam -- 10.2. Brightness of a light source -- 10.3. Monochromaticity -- 10.4. Coherence

11. ABCD matrices and stability diagrams -- 11.1. Geometrical optics and ABCD matrices -- 11.2. Round trip in a cavity -- 11.3. Cavity with several round trips -- 11.4. Nearly stable or marginally stable resonators -- 11.5. Stable resonators -- 11.6. Unstable resonators

12. Stability conditions according to Gaussian beam analysis -- 12.1. Cavity mirrors as diffracting elements -- 12.2. Laser light : a plane or spherical wave? -- 12.3. Kirchhoff's diffraction -- 12.4. Directional properties of laser light -- 12.5. Stability condition and Gaussian wave analysis -- 12.6. TEM modes

part II. Pulsed lasers and nonlinear optical applications. 13. Laser spiking and Q-switching -- 13.1. Pulsed light sources -- 13.2. The spiking phenomenon -- 13.3. The Q-switching phenomenon

14. Introduction to nonlinear optical phenomena -- 14.1. Review of linear dielectrics -- 14.2. Wave equation in nonlinear optics -- 14.3. Units and estimates of susceptibilities -- 14.4. Characteristics of second-order susceptibility -- 14.5. Virtual levels -- 14.6. Linear and nonlinear optics

15. Second-order susceptibility, phase matching, and applications -- 15.1. Sum- and difference-frequency generation -- 15.2. Signal and idler photons -- 15.3. Properties of, and contracted notation for, [chi](2) -- 15.4. Conditions for refractive-index matching -- 15.5. Parametric oscillation and amplification -- 15.6. Superfluorescence -- 15.7. Generation of polarization-entangled photons

16. Third-order nonlinear optical processes -- 16.1. Parametric and nonparametric processes -- 16.2. Third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility -- 16.3. Symmetry properties of the susceptibility tensor -- 16.4. Four-wave mixing due to [chi](3) -- 16.5. Third-harmonic generation -- 16.6. Optical Kerr effect -- 16.7. Optical phase conjugation -- 16.8. Stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering -- 16.9. Four-photon parametric generation -- 16.10. Cross-phase modulation -- 16.11. Self-steepening -- 16.12. Saturable absorption -- 16.13. Photonic circuit based on the SA effect

17. Mode locking -- 17.1. The requirement for short-duration optical pulses -- 17.2. Mode locking of lasers -- 17.3. Methods of mode locking -- 17.4. Shortening of pulse length -- 17.5. Spectra of mode-locked laser pulses

18. Characterization of ultrafast laser pulses -- 18.1. Introduction -- 18.2. Autocorrelators -- 18.3. Frequency-resolved optical gating -- 18.4. Spectral phase interferometry -- 18.5. Frequency up- and downconversion -- 18.6. Dispersion of ultrafast laser pulses -- 18.7. Dispersion compensation -- 18.8. Dispersion-free autocorrelator -- 18.9. Chirped pulse amplification

19. Optical phase conjugation -- 19.1. Two-beam interference and Bragg diffraction -- 19.2. Four-wave mixing : phase conjugation -- 19.3. Time-reversal in phase conjugation -- 19.4. Applications of phase conjugation

20. Multiphoton absorption -- 20.1. Higher photon absorption processes -- 20.2. Units of absorption cross-sections -- 20.3. Selection rules -- 20.4. Reverse saturable absorption -- 20.5. Estimating the number of photons -- 20.6. Second-harmonic or multiphoton emission?

21. White-light continuum generation -- 21.1. Spatial self-phase modulation -- 21.2. White-light continuum generation -- 21.3. Phenomena responsible for WLC generation -- 21.4. Spectrum of the WLC in a water-D2O mixture -- 21.5. Supercontinuum with photonic crystal fiber -- 21.6. Filamentation and conical emission -- 21.7. Dark-core beam generation

22. Semiconductor lasers -- 22.1. Semiconductors -- 22.2. Bandgaps in semiconductors -- 22.3. Excitons -- 22.4. Fermi level -- 22.5. Direct and indirect bandgaps -- 22.6. Density of states -- 22.7. p-type and n-type semiconductors -- 22.8. The p-n junction and electrical excitation -- 22.9. Semiconductor heterostructures -- 22.10. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers -- 22.11. Quantum cascade laser : a unipolar device

23. Fiber lasers -- 23.1. Fiber laser technology -- 23.2. Gain media for fiber lasers -- 23.3. Chromatic dispersion and nonlinear effects -- 23.4. Optical nonlinearity -- 23.5. Fiber amplifiers and lasers -- 23.6. Figure-of-eight laser -- 23.7. High-power fiber lasers -- 23.8. Raman fiber laser -- 23.9. Optical fiber communication

24. Coherent radiation obtained using special geometries -- 24.1. Mirrorless laser cavities -- 24.2. Coherent radiation based on acceleration of charge -- 24.3. Present and future outlook

Appendix A. Suggested further reading -- Appendix B. Luminescence -- Appendix C. Physical constants.

Lasers are ubiquitous--from deep space communication to lab on the chip to supermarket product scanning. Although they form an integral part of optics and photonics and are extensively used in research areas of science and technology to create multibillion dollar industries, the progress in severely limited in the subcontinent due to lack of experimental training in this field. The need of the hour is to have a self-sufficient book containing laser-related concepts readily available to beginners. The book is written keeping undergraduate and graduate students in mind to possibly serve as a textbook. It is also aimed to provide fundamental reference material on ultrafast lasers and photonics for researchers in the field of optics and bioengineering. Part of IOP Series in Advances in Optics, Photonics and Optoelectronics.

Undergraduate courses on lasers and photonics including: laser theory, foundations of photonics, introduction to engineering optics, optics and spectroscopy, ultrafast phenomena.

Also available in print.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB reader, or Kindle reader.

Prem B. Bisht is Professor of Physics at IIT Madras at Chennai. His research interests include ultrafast laser spectroscopy and its application to nanomaterials with a special interest in noncollinear optical parametric amplifiers and fluorescence microscopy. After receiving a PhD in physics from Kumaun University NainiTal in 1991, Prem has been with IIT Madras since 1997 as a teacher and researcher. Prem has been a JSPS fellow, member of Indian Laser Association, Optical Society of India, Indian Association of Physics Teachers, Indian Science Congress, SPIE and currently a senior member of Optica. He has published 250 scientific papers, one edited book, several book chapters, delivered about 100 talks at institutes and conferences, and supervised 15 PhD students and over 35 UG/PG (Res) students to completion.

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