Fulbright's Course: Physics of Light-based Technology

Fulbright course: Physics for Light-based Technology

Instructor: Dr. Son Cao, IFIRSE, Adjunct Professor at Fulbright Univ.

Intro Syllabus Objectives Assessments

References Instructor

Course Description

"What is light?" is among the oldest questions engrossing human minds through age. People are interested in nature, the aesthetic, and the technological application of light. Light provides us with an omnipotent tool to perceive almost everything from the world of sub-atomic particles to the Cosmos, but a sustainable and effective solution for various sectors of modern life, including, but not limited to, food, communication, entertainment, energy, environment, and medicine. Microwave for food heating, fiber-optic telecommunication for the Internet, laser for the massive digital data storage and reading, light detection and ranging for the autonomous vehicle, x-ray for medical imaging, fluorescence for food quality assessment, etc., are among countless examples of the light-based technologies. Those have been integrated seamlessly into our daily life, but we rarely appreciate how they work. The course aims to provide a solid background of the fundamental characteristics of light, its interaction with the matter, the mechanism of the light production, light transportation, and light detection. We will discuss technological applications of those aspects in light of the well-established and emerging technologies. We hope by the end, students will treasure the beauty of light and explore it as a sustainable solution for our common home—the Earth.

Tentative Syllabus

The following is a tentative syllabus for the course. Please note that it can be slightly updated later. Essentially there are 7 weeks with in-class lectures and onsite office hours and we will have 6 hours of lectures per week. We will meet on Tuesday and Thursday 9am-12pm every other week. These weeks are interleaved with weeks of online office hours and remote discussion only. On aggregate, this syllabus is equivalent to the regular 4-credit course. The last two weeks are allocated for the final examination and mini-project report.

Week 1

1. Nature of light (part 1/2)

Light spectrum What you see and what you can’t see by eyes; The speed of light the absolute among the relative, Overview of Modern theory of light Plack’s formula, The photoelectric effect, de Broglie’s hypothesis, Wave-particle duality

Week 2

Remote discussion and Online hour office (via Zoom)

Week 3

1. Nature of light (part 2/2)

Light spectrum What you see and what you can’t see by eyes; The speed of light the absolute among the relative, Overview of Modern theory of light Plack’s formula, The photoelectric effect, de Broglie’s hypothesis, Wave-particle duality

Week 4

Remote discussion and Online hour office (via Zoom)

Week 5

2. Light originality and production (part 1/2)

“Let there be light” We are the progeny of light - a glance at the Big Bang theory Here, there, everywhere from bacteria to the star Coherent and Incoherent light ; Light sources and their application include, but not limited to : Incandescence: emission of light from a hot body / night camera Sunlight: how does the Sun shine? Is the sunlight eternal? Cherenkov radiation: when the charged particle go faster than the light in the same medium Light-emitting diodes (LED): is LED the most effective way for lightening? photoluminescence: Fluorescence spectrometer for food quality assessment bioluminescence: firefly and bioluminescence imaging

Week 6

Remote discussion and Online hour office (via Zoom)

Week 7

2. Light originality and production (part 2/2)

“Let there be light” We are the progeny of light - a glance at the Big Bang theory Here, there, everywhere from bacteria to the star Coherent and Incoherent light ; Light sources and their application include, but not limited to : Incandescence: emission of light from a hot body / night camera Sunlight: how does the Sun shine? Is the sunlight eternal? Cherenkov radiation: when the charged particle go faster than the light in the same medium Light-emitting diodes (LED): is LED the most effective way for lightening? photoluminescence: Fluorescence spectrometer for food quality assessment bioluminescence: firefly and bioluminescence imaging

Week 8

Remote discussion and Online hour office (via Zoom)

Week 9

3. Light transportation and optical communication (part 1/2)

Reflection and refraction manipulate the light for changing the size of object images / Magnifying glasses, microscopes, contact lenses; Total internal reflection Optical fibers, and the evolution of the optical telecommunication Rayleigh scattering and light loss during transmission

Week 10

Remote discussion and Online hour office (via Zoom)

Week 11

3. Light transportation and optical communication (part 2/2)

Reflection and refraction manipulate the light for changing the size of object images / Magnifying glasses, microscopes, contact lenses; Total internal reflection Optical fibers, and the evolution of the optical telecommunication Rayleigh scattering and light loss during transmission

Week 12

Remote discussion and Online hour office (via Zoom)

Week 13

4. Light detection and photosensors

Light detection mechanism ; Photomultipliers: vacuum-based and Silicon-based; Light detection and Ranging (LiDAR)

Week 14-15

Final examination and mini-project presentation

TBA

Technology to be introduced

The course is designed with an interdisciplinary approach in mind. Number of technologies from diverse disciplines will be introduced along with the physical background and concepts, including, but not limited to,

In Telecommunication: Optical fiber, Internet, wireless
In Medical Imaging: X-ray, Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
In Industry: Light detection and Ranging (LiDAR), Laser for product manufacture
In Food: Microwave for food heating; fluorescence spectroscopy for food quality assessment
In Science: Tracking the invisible with Cherenkov light and scintillation light; single-photon resolving photosensors

Learning Objectives

Understand the nature of light, what one can and can't see by eyes
Understand how light is produced, how they interact with matter, how we can manipulate them
Recognize and get the hang of the light-based technologies in the daily assets such as internet, microwave, camera, x-ray…
Enrich practical skills to handle the light sources and light sensors
Equip computation, simulation, and data anlysis skills
Develop group-working, report-writing, and presentation skills

Class Assessments

Tentative grading procedure: 40% from the in-class quizzles and 60% from the final mini-project report and presentation. For the mini-project, students are grouped into 3-4 students and each group will select a mini-project from a provisional list and work out together for the final report and presentation.

Reading materials

Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Physics, some selected chapters, David J.Griffiths
The Story of Light Science, some selected chapters, Dennis F. Vanderwerf
Visible and Invisible: The Wonders of Light Phenomena, some selected chapters, Olmes Bisi
QED, The Strange Theory of Light and matter, chapter 2, Richard P. Feynman
The physics behind… , discover the physics of everyday events, Russ Swan

Other online sources

About Instructor

Dr. Son Cao got a Ph.D. in Physics in 2014 from the University of Texas at Austin, the U.S. After graduation, he worked as a post-doctoral researchers in Japan for almost 7 years at Okayama Univ., Kyoto Univ., and High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). Since April. 1st 2021, he has worked for the Institute For Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Education (IFIRSE). His main focus is the physics of neutrino, an elementary particle - building blocks of matter in the Universe. He has been worked for few international neutrino experiments such as MINOS (US), T2K and Super-Kamiokande (Japan). Along with neutrino physics, he is interested in and has experience of low-light detection technology. His work contribution can be found on Dr. Son Cao's webpage. The course has been built basing on his physics background and experience when working in the international neutrino experiments. Along with physics of light and light-based technology, he is happy to discuss with students about neutrino science and particle physics.