Enrollment Information:
Course Name: Physics 98_002 (make sure to enroll in group 002!!)
Course Number: 27192

This is a class about devices which use Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation - LASERs! Although they are used practically everywhere in modern society (from barcodes to medical devices, all the way to high level scientific experiments), few are aware of what a laser is, or what makes them special. We will cover the mechanisms behind lasers, how they were first developed, and their historical and practical uses. Finally, we will study contemporary work and applications of lasers.

We hope that students will come out of this course familiar with the principles and applications of lasers, and gain an appreciation of their incredible usefulness in many aspects of society! :)

Class Policy: Homework worksheets will be posted on BCourses at least one week in advance and will be due before the lecture section on the Monday following the topical lecture, unless otherwise specified. There will be a total of 10 homework assignments.

Assignments will be based on the assigned readings and content from the lecture. Late assignments will only be accepted with an exemption granted by the instructors. This must be requested ahead of time.

General structure of assignments will consist of the following: a few conceptual questions requiring 2~3 complete sentences each, and 1-2 math based questions which will involve calculating a desired value given some formula. Don’t worry the math based questions will not be difficult, they will simply help give you a sense of physical intuition of properties such as speed, length, or energy. Final Project: At the end of the semester, students will complete a final project that will consist of a presentation to the course. It will be slideshow based and given via Zoom. This project may be completed in groups of 2, however you are allowed to do it alone. Members of groups of 2 will be given the same number of points. The slideshow will consist of presenting your findings on a novel application of lasers that has not been discussed in the course.