Photonics/Optics Teaching Laboratory

Department of Physics

University of Toronto

Sponsored by

What is the relation between Optics and Photonics? Science and Technology

Optics is the scientific study of the behaviour of light. Photonics is a term that became popular in the 1990s to parallel the word 'electronics'. Photonics is the technology concerned with the properties and transmission of photons.

There's only just so much that people can do to innovate, adapt or revise technology without having a real grasp of the relationships that underlie things, and that's where the physics of optics comes in as the basis of understanding photonics. Transformative technology therefore depends on qualitative change in the nature of physical relationships.

The experiments of this lab are designed to introduce the physics of wave and light propagation, especially dispersion, and the nonlinear optics of ultrafast optical pulses. The emphasis is everywhere on the relationships that emerge, which define how things work. Applied physics applications then pop up everywhere in these experiments, and we present many opportunities to see where these applications have led to new technology in photonics.

The Experiments

Linear pulse propagation and dispersion

These are experiments designed to introduce the physics of dispersive pulse propagation, and propagation in waveguides -- a good prototype for light propagating in optical fibers. A set of speakers drives sound pulses down different modes of an acoustic waveguide, and you can study what the system (differential equation plus boundary conditions) imposes on the pulses.

First observation: the speed of sound is not 'the speed of sound'.

Fiber optics

These are experiments which let you discover the science of optical-fiber waveguides. You'll figure out about launching light into an optical fiber, learn about the modes of propagation, and study the relations between wavelength and fiber size, as it affects coupling, propagation and output characteristics.

First observation: there's much more to fiber optics than just wires for light..

Ultrafast Optics

The experiments of this lab are designed to introduce the physics of ultrafast optics: how ultrafast lasers make ultrafast optical pulses, studies of linear propagation and nonlinear optics of ultrafast optical pulses, and several advanced topics of experiments about or using femtosecond laser pulses.

First observation: you have your own femtosecond laser to play physics with.

Last revised: 7 April 2003 -- rsm