The Physics Department is developing a new undergraduate instructional laboratory Lasers, Fiber Optics and Photonics Laboratory. This laboratory is giving the student a practical working knowledge of state of the art devices, methods, and techniques used in these new and emerging technologies. This laboratory course complements two lecture courses that have recently been added to the curriculum, Fiber Optics and Photonics, and Laser Physics and Optoelectronic Devices. These fields are central to the development of several optical technologies and instrumentation techniques of the future, and there is a shortage of trained scientists and engineers in these rapidly developing disciplines. Fiber optic sensors and communication/data links, magneto-optic storage media, semiconductor optoelectronics, optics and electronics on the same chip (integrated), and optical computing will have major impacts on the future economy and science and technology base of the U.S. The equipment, in conjunction with equipment already on hand, allows a broad variety of student experiments to be performed. Novel features of the laboratory include work with several types of photonic equipment, experiments with gas and semiconductor laser, beam, spectral, modal, coherence, and noise properties, high speed fiber optical data communication techniques, acousto-optic beam deflection and frequency shifting, experiments in fiber optic interferometric and distributed sensors, measurements of magneto-optic and polarization properties of optical fibers and other media, experiments with integrated optic phase modulators and electric field sensors, and computer interfacing and control of laboratory instrumentation and equipment. Major equipment items purchased include an optical spectrometer, Fabry Perot interferometer, RF spectrum analyzer, high speed pulse generator, stepper motor controlled precision translation and rotation stages, an optical vibration isolation table, an integrated optic Mach Zehnder modulator, and laboratory computer with data acquisition hardware and software. The university is matching the award with an equal amount of funds.
