Solid-State Optics (3 units). Basic concepts in crystals and in optical response; optical properties of metals, insulators and semiconductors; quantum wells; glass and polymers; optical nonlinearities; solid-state devices and laser diodes. P, PHYS 371 or OPTI 511R. Knowledge of basic quantum mechanics is highly recommended.

Meeting Times:
Lectures: T/Th 11:00 to 12:15 p.m. | Room 307

Description:
This is an introductory-level course in the field of solid-state optoelectronics. It includes an introduction to the microscopic properties of solids such as bulk metals, insulators, semiconductors, polymers, glass and semiconductor heterostructures, as well as their linear and nonlinear optical response. It also contains a discussion of basic operation of principles of opto-electronic devices such as lasers, light modulators and detectors.

A necessary prerequisite is a good understanding of basic electromagnetic theory (including Maxwell’s equations and the mathematics of Fourier transformations) and quantum mechanics (including the physics of the hydrogen atom and perturbation theory).

Some of the topics of this course will be covered in detail (for example, the linear optical response of solids, simple optical properties of phonons and the physics of quantum wells), whereas other topics will only be covered in the form of general overviews (for example electro-optical properties of semiconductors and nonlinear optical effects).

No advanced mathematical techniques, such as second quantization, will be used.

There are two major goals of this course. First, the course should present basic facts about optical properties of solids based on their microscopic structure. Second, the student should be enabled to understand various optical and opto-electronic phenomena used in devices on the basis of the few microscopic aspects presented in this course.

Homework:

• Weekly homework assignments with a few problems will be handed out each week.
  Homework assignments are due one week after distribution.

• Closed book in-class midterm exam.
• Closed book in-class final exam.

• The grades will be based 30% on the homework, 25% on the midterm and 45% on the final exam.

Dr. Rolf Binder
binder@optics.arizona.edu
621-2892

Meinel Building, Room 632
Office Hours: Mondays 3:00-4:00 p.m., Thursdays 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Sawyer Campbell
scampbell@optics.arizona.edu

Meinel Building, Room 654
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:00-12:00 p.m.

• Basic concepts of crystals (direct lattice, reciprocal lattice, Brillouin zone, electronic wave functions in single atoms and in solids, Bloch wave functions, energy bands, effective mass, Fermi and Bose distribution functions, classification of solids, electrons and holes, density-of-states).
• Basic concepts of optical response (Dielectric optical response, refractive index and absorption, dispersion relations, Kramers-Kronig relations, optical properties of metals, plasmons, surface plasmons.
• Optical properties of phonons (optical and acoustic phonons, dispersion relations, diatomic lattice, 3-dimensional crystals, effective charges, Bose functions, optical excitation of phonons, infrared absorption, phonon polaritons, light scattering, Raman and Brillouin scattering, coherent Raman spectroscopy).
• Linear optical properties of semiconductors (direct and indirect gap semiconductors, energy and momentum conservation in band-to-band transitions, optical absorption and quantum mechanical time-dependent perturbation theory, dipole allowed transitions in the parabolic band approximation, indirect optical transitions, excitons, two-particle Schrödinger equation, selection rules, excitonic absorption in semiconductors, emission in semiconductors, examples of important semiconductors.
• Quasi-two-dimensional semiconductors (quantum confinement, quantum wells, subbands, superlattices, optical transitions and selection rules in 2D, excitons in quantum wells).
• Overview of electro-optical properties of semiconductors and quantum wells (Franz-Keldysh effect, DC Stark effect, exciton ionization, quantum-confined dc-Stark effect).
• Electrical transport (doping, transport equations, p-n heterojunctions).
• Concepts of semiconductor lasers and detectors (lasing conditions, biased p-n junctions, edge-emitting lasers, VCSELs, DFBs, photovataic cells).
• Overview of organics and polymer optics (basic concepts in chemistry, molecules, polymers, bonds, σ and π orbitals, light absorption and emission in organics, transport in polymers, organic light-emitting diodes).
• Overview of glass optics (glass formation, doping of glass, glass waveguides and fibers, fiber amplifiers and lasers).

• C. Klingshirn, Semiconductor Optics (Springer, Berlin, 1995)
• P. Yu and M. Cardona, Fundamentals of Semiconductors: Physics and Material Properties, (Springer, Berlin, 1999)
• J.D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics Wiley, New York, 1975)
• B.E.A. Saleh and M.C. Teich, Fundamentals of Photonics (Wiley, New York, 1991).
• J.M. Ziman, Principles of the Theory of Solids Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1972).
• S.L. Chuang, Physics of Optoelectronic Devices (Wiley, New York, 1995).
• P. Bhattacharya, Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1994)
• H.M. Gibbs, Optical Bistability: Controlling Light with Light (Academic Press, New York, 1985).
• H. Haug and S.W. Koch, Quantum Theory of the Optical and Electronic Properties of Semiconductors, 4th ed. (World Scientific, Singapore, 1993).

Contains many more rigorous derivations of the introductory required text book by Peyghambarian et al.

• A. Yariv, Optical Electronics (Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia, 1991)
• M. Razeghi, Fundamentals of Solid State Engineering (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002)
• F. Wooten, Optical Properties of Solids (Academic Press, New York, 1972)
• C.R. Dillard and D.E. Goldberg, Chemistry; Reactions, Structures and Properties (Macmillan, New York, 1971)
• J.B. Pierce, The Chemistry of Matter (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1970)