The Electrodynamics 3 Course web page at IISER-Kolkata
Instructor : Dr. Ananda Dasgupta
Note : this page is still under construction !!!
The proposed course contents is given below. As you may have noticed, this seems to be a bit heavy for a one semester course. I will try to do as much justice to the the contents as possible. I will also try to cover some very recent work in the field.
Electricity and Magnetism III (Elective) (3 credits)
Relativistic covariance. Manifestly covariant formulation of electromagnetism. (If time permits - differential forms and electromagnetism)
The wave equation in electromagnetism – a recapitulation. Solution of the inhomogeneous wave equation for potentials. Retarded potentials. The Lennard-Wiechart potential. Field due to an arbitrarily moving point charge. Radiation from an accelerated charge. Larmor's formula and its relativistic generalization. Radiation damping.
Propagation of electromagnetic waves in a dielectric medium. Dispersion and absorption in a medium. Causality and information velocity. The Kramers-Kronig relations and their consequences.
The continuity condition on electromagnetic fields across an interface. The reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves across a dielectric interface. Fresnel's equations.
The vector nature of electromagnetic radiation. Polarization of radiation. The description of polarization – Stoke's parameters and the Poincare sphere. Propagation of electromagnetic waves in an electrically anisotropic medium (uniaxial and biaxial crystals). Optical rotatory power and Faraday rotation. The Jone's matrix method.
Propagation of electromagnetic waves in a conducting medium. The optical constants of metals. The Lorentz model of conductivity. Wave guides and resonant cavities.
The eikonal approximation and geometrical optics. The matrix method of geometrical optics. Optical imaging and Gaussian optics. Aberration.
Measures of coherence. Interference of two and multiple beams. Interferometers. The Huygens-Fresnel theory of diffraction. Kirchoff's integral theorem and diffraction. The Fraunhoffer and Fresnel limits of diffraction. Fraunhoffer diffraction from a rectangular and circular apertures. Diffraction gratings.
Nonlinear optics. Optical second harmonic generation. Four wave mixing and phase conjugation.
Suggested Text/ Reference Books :
- L.. D. Landau and E. M. Lifschitz, Course on theoretical physics – Vol. 2 : Classical theory of Fields, Butterworth-Heinemann, London (1998).
- L.. D. Landau and E. M. Lifschitz, Course on theoretical physics – Vol. 8 : Electrodynamics of continuous media, Butterworth-Heinemann, London (1984).
- J. D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics, John Wiley and Sons (1975).
- D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to electrodynamics, Benjamin Cummings; (1999)
- W. K. H. Panofsky and M. Phillips, Classical Electricity and Magnetism, Dover Publications (2005).
- E. Hecht, Optics, Addison Wesley; ( 2001)
- M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics : Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light, Cambridge University Press; (1999)
- R. W. Boyd, Nonlinear optics, Academic Press; (2008)
Prerequisites
If you have taken PH121 (Electromagnetism and optics) and PH312 (Electricity and magnetism II) , then you have enough prerequisites for this course. In case you want to brush up on old stuff, my notes for the PH121 course are at my geocities page.
