This project is enabling Vanderbilt University to acquire instrumentation to teach about the nonlinear interactions of light with matter, as part of the University's advanced laboratory in optics and lasers. The project is motivated by increasing demand for significant instruction in the techniques and concepts of modern optical physics, both in the advanced laboratory and in independent study and in honors projects. Recent proof-of-concept experiments have included studies of nonlinear laser-matter interactions in Chinese green tea, cresyl violet dye, and ion-implanted fused silica. This project-oriented approach to nonlinear optics with cw lasers is giving undergraduate students a unique opportunity to have fun with serious optical physics, and motivating them toward early involvement in research.The project is enhancing teaching effectiveness, because nonlinear laser interactions are at the heart of many of the most fertile areas of laser and optical science. Moreover, nonlinear optical physics in solids and liquids is a powerfully and quintessentially integrative field of inquiry, bringing together experiment and theory, optical and condensed-matter physics, quantum and classical physics. The new instructional activities using cw infrared and visible laser light include: studies of self-focusing and self-trapping of laser beams, optical switching experiments, and modeling of nonlinear processes in solids and liquids.NSF grant funds are being matched with funds from non-federal sources.
