2.718: Photonic Materials

Spring | Graduate | 12 Units | Prereq: 2.003, 8.03, 6.2370, or permission of instructor.

Provides a review of Maxwell's equations and the Helmholtz wave equation. Optical devices: waveguides and cavities, phase and group velocity, causality, and scattering. Light-matter interaction in bulk, surface, and subwavelength-structured matter. Effective media, dispersion relationships, wavefronts and rays, eikonal description of light propagation, phase singularities. Transformation optics, gradient effective media. Includes description of the experimental tools for realization and measurement of photonic materials and effects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.