An Electrooptics and Microwave Optics Program in Electrical Engineering

Abstract

The Moore School of Electrical Engineering offers a program in electrooptics, with a microwave optics component, intended for graduate and advanced senior undergraduate electrical engineering students. The courses offered cover topics in classical and modern optics, such as matrix treatment of optical systems; physical, Fourier, and electron optics; coherence, radiometry, and photometry; sources of optical radiation; and modulation and detection. In addition, optical computing, optical and nonoptical holography, and synthetic aperture systems are included. Course material is introduced by taking advantage of the strong background our electrical engineering students have in electromagnetics, Fourier analysis, linear systems, matrix methods, and communications and information theory. Outlines and source material for the various courses in the program are presented here, together with a description of laboratory facilities that allow students to become familiar with the practical aspects of electrooptics and microwave optics in a research-oriented environment rather than a structured laboratory course environment. Supervised involvement of the student in the ongoing research activity serves as a vehicle for learning experimental techniques.