Syllabus

This page includes a calendar listing lecture topics and key dates.

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Textbook

The primary course text is:

Buy at Amazon Saleh, B. E. A., and M. C. Teich. Fundamentals of Photonics. New York, NY: Wiley, 1991. ISBN: 9780471839651.

Readings assigned from this book will be supplemented by lecture notes, selections from other books, journal articles, and other handouts.

Class Format

First Lecture per week:

  • Quiz (10 minutes)
  • Review of last class and student questions
  • Lecture

Second Lecture per week:

  • Homework due
  • Review of last class and student questions
  • Lecture

Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) Workgroups

This class is offered concurrently to students at MIT and in Singapore via the Singapore-MIT Alliance. Students will assigned to Workgroups for weekly homeworks and Design Review projects. Each group will consist of 2-3 students at MIT and 2-3 students in Singapore.

Assignments

Students will be given weekly homework assignments. One solution will be submitted per workgroup. All members of the group receive the same homework grade.

Design Review Projects

Workgroups must complete four design review projects during the term. These begin with an introduction and discussion during class, and proceed via Web site discussion forums and optional appointments with Prof. Kimerling. The final deliverables are:

  • 20 minute presentation (5-6 slides), during which all workgroup members must speak.
  • Two days later, submit corrected slides and a final two-page report.

Weekly Quizzes

The weekly quizzes cover two lectures from the previous week. They test student attentiveness, and assess each student's ability to:

  1. Grasp Concepts, and
  2. Retain Facts.

Grading

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Homework (7) 30%
Quizzes (7) 30%
Design Reviews (4) 30%
Final Exam 10%

Course Calendar

LEC # TOPICS KEY DATES
1 Optical Materials Design 1
2 Optical Materials Design 2
3 System Design: TDM, WDM Homework 1 due
4 Ray Optics, EM Optics and Guided Wave Optics
5 Waveguide Design Homework 2 due
6 WDM Filters: The Microcavity and the Ring Resonator
7 Photonic Crystals Homework 3 due
8 Electrons in Semiconductors
9 Photons in Semiconductors and Dielectrics Homework 4 due
Design Review 1
10 LEDs
11 Optical Amplifiers and Lasers
12 Crystal Growth Homework 5 due
13 Nonlinear Optics and Modulators
14 Defects and Strain
15 III-V Processing Homework 6 due
16 Detectors 1 Homework 7 due
Design Review 2
17 Detectors 2
18 Microphotonics 1
19 Microphotonics 2
20 Nanophotonics
Design Review 3 (Part 1), Real-Time Design Review 4 (Part 1)
Design Review 3 (Part 2), Real-Time Design Review 4 (Part 2)
21 Photonics Toolkit
Final Exam