Course Title:Foundations of Nonlinear Optics

Course Level:

Attendees of all levels are welcome.  The first half of each chapter carefully introduces the basic concepts, amplified and solidified by the incorporation of relevant cartoons showing how things work.  It is likely that even the very advanced attendant will benefit from these clarifying cartoons, especially those who have teaching obligations in this field.  Some advanced concepts are then found in the latter halves of each chapter.  In this latter half of each chapter, the beginners hear the names of certain concepts, whetting their appetites for being more susceptible the second and/or third times they subsequently run into the names of these effects. 

 Course Description:

This multi—level course provides the basic concepts of bulk media nonlinear optics. Although some mathematical formulas are provided, the emphasis is on simple explanations. numerous cartoons are found mostly in the beginning of each chapter, each one chosen to lock in the basic elements of that chapter.  It is recognized that the beginning practitioner in nonlinear optics is overwhelmed by a constellation of complicated nonlinear optical effects, including second-harmonic generation, optical Kerr effect, self-focusing, self-phase modulation, self-steepening, fiber-optic solitons, chirping, stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering, and photorefractive phenomena. It is our job in this course to demystify this daunting collection of seemingly unrelated effects by developing simple and clear explanations for how each works, and learning how each effect can be used for the modification, manipulation, or conversion of light pulses. Where possible, examples will address the nonlinear optical effects that occur inside optical fibers. Also covered are examples in liquids, bulk solids, and gases. 

Benefits and Learning Objectives: 

•  Explain to another person the origins and concepts behind the Slowly-Varying Envelope Approximation (SVEA)  
•  Recognize what nonlinear events come into play in different effects 
•  Appreciate the intimate relationship between nonlinear events which at first appear quite different
•  Appreciate how a variety of different nonlinear events arise, and how they affect the propagation of light
•  Comprehend how wave matching, phase-matching, and index matching are related 
•  Explain to others how self-phase modulation impresses “chirping” on pulses, without using equations
•  Describe basic two-beam interactions in photorefractive materials
•  Develop an appreciation for the extremely broad variety of ways in which materials exhibit nonlinear behavior 

Intended Audience:

The material presented will be useful to engineers, scientists, students, and managers who need a fundamental understanding of nonlinear optics.  This course has been attended by several active lawyers.   

This Sunday afternoon Nonlinear Optics course might be excellent preparation for those who might otherwise be too cautious to take the excellent Monday morning CLEO course taught by Ben Eggleton, Principles and Applications of Guided Wave Nonlinear Optics.   

Instructor Biography: 

Robert A. Fisher is the owner of RA Fisher Associates, LLC, his firm providing technical training in lasers, nonlinear optics, and in optics, provides private consulting, and provides expert witness legal services.  As an expert witness, he was on the winning side of a Lawsuit that settled for $1 Billion.  He has been active in laser physics and in nonlinear optics for more than 50 years. He has taught graduate courses at the Univ. of California, Davis, and worked at both Lawrence Livermore National Lab. and Los Alamos National Lab.  He is an SPIE Fellow and an OSA Fellow, and was a 3-year member of SPIE’s Board of Directors. He has served on the CLEO Conference Nonlinear Optics Subcommittee for 5 years, with two of those years as its chair.  He has Co-chaired numerous SPIE conferences. He was the Program Co-Chair of the CLEO 2010 Conference and was General Co-Chair of the CLEO 2012 Conference (now renamed CLEO: Science and Innovations).  For 4 years, he was Co-Chair of the CLEO Course Committee.  In 2017 he was nominated for and has become one of the five top finalists for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s award “Mentor of the Year.”