Università Roma Tre

• Fundamentals of light and matter
Light propagation in vacuum and through dielectric media, interference, diffraction, coherence. Polarization of light, optical activity and birefringence. Light sources and photons. Schrödinger equation in the box and in the Hydrogen atom. Quantized states in atoms and molecules. Electronic and vibrational states of a molecule. Stereoisomers.

• Basics of biology
Cellular structure and types; chemical building blocks; cellular processes: replication, biosynthesis and energy production; protein classification and function; organization of cells into tissues.

• Light-matter interactions
Interactions between light and a molecule; Einstein’s model of absorption and emission; interaction of light with a bulk matter; fate of excited states; electronic absorption spectroscopy; electronic luminescence spectroscopy; Raman spectroscopy; spectroscopy utilizing optical activity of chiral media; fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.

• Lasers
principles of lasers, classifications; biophotonic applications; radiometry; nonlinear optics; multiphoton absorption; time-resolved approaches; laser safety.

• Bioimaging
Overview of optical imaging; transmission microscopy; simple and compound microscope; numerical aperture and resolution; phase contrast microscopy; fluorescence microscopy; scanning microscopy; confocal microscopy; optical coherence tomography; spectral and time-resolved imaging; localized spectroscopy; fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging; fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM); coherent anti-stokes raman scattering (CARS).

• Flow cytometry
Components of a flow cytometer; optical response; fluorochromes for flow cytometry;
data manipulation and presentation; immunophenotyping; DNA analysis.

• Laser tweezers and laser scissors
Applications; principle of laser tweezer action; radiation pressure; gradient and scattering forces; design of a laser tweezer; laser scissor; optical stretcher.

P. N. Prasad - Introduction to Biophotonics