PHY485H1/1485H:  Advanced Classical Optics

This course builds on a student's knowledge of basic electromagnetic theory by focusing attention on light including elementary aspects of the propagation of optical beams and their interaction with matter.  We examine light polarization, coherence, interference and diffraction as we move towards a description of lasers within a semiclassical picture in which the fields are treated classically and matter is treated quantum mechanically.  In between we discuss Gaussian beam modes and their relation to optical resonators as well as fibre and slab waveguides.