Electricity and Magnetism

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Taught at host institution. When taught at Trinity: PY3P02 Electromagnetic Interactions I at TCD; Part I: Electromagnetic Theory: Vector operators, Green's and Stokes' theorems; Coulomb's and Gauss' Laws; dipoles and polarisation; electric susceptibility and displacement vector; polar dielectrics and Langevin analysis; potential and electric energy density; electrostatic boundary conditions and method of images; Biot-Savart and Ampere's Laws; magnetic dipole and magnetisation; H vector; vector potential; magnetic energy density; magnetostatic boundary conditions; dia, para and ferro magnetism; Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction; magnetoelectric induction; Maxwell's equations; plane waves; Poynting vector.Part II: Quantum Optics & Lasers: Interaction of light with matter: black body radiation, the photoelectric effect, Einstein A and B coefficients. Light as photons. Coherence and fluctuations of real sources, correlation functions, photon statistics. Behaviour of photons in beam splitters, interferometers and cavities. The Raman effect. Basic laser theory: absorption and gain cross-section, saturation of absorption and gain, cavity lifetime and longitudinal modes, transverse mode structure, Gaussian beams. Three and four level lasers and power output in continuous wave lasers. Transient laser behaviour, relaxation oscillations, Q-switching, methods of Q-switching, mode-locking and methods of mode-locking. Specific laser systems: ruby and Nd-YAG/glass lasers, He-Ne laser, argon-ion laser, carbon-dioxide laser, excimer laser, dye laser and semiconductor diode laser.