Università Roma Tre

- Preliminaries: Dirac delta function, Fourier transform, convolution, linear systems, Bessel functions
- Wave equation, harmonic waves, Helmholtz equation, plane waves
- From Maxwell equations to e.m. waves, plane e.m. waves, Poynting vector, power and momentum, intensity, polarization
- Propagation and interference of plane waves, superpositions of plane waves
- Diffraction, plane-wave expansion of a light field
- Diffraction-free beams
- Rayleigh-Sommerfeld formula, Huygens-Fresnel principle, Fresnel integral, paraxial wave equation
- Far-field approximation
- Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction from rectangular slit, circular hole, opaque disc
- Effects on propagation of thin lenses and spherical mirrors
- Diffraction by gratings
- Diffractive Optical Elements: beam multipliers, Damman gratings, phase discretization, circular gratings
- Electromagnetic theory of gratings
- Gaussian beams of zero and higher order
- Focusing, collimating and expanding Gaussian beams
- Uncertainty principle and M2 factor
- Principles of holography, computer-generated holograms
- Introduction to coherence theory, coherence function, degrees of coherence, van Citter-Zernike and Wiener-Kintchine theorems

- P. Mazzoldi, M. Nigro, C. Voci, “Elementi di Fisica, vol. 2”, II edizione, EdiSES (2008)
- F. Gori, “Elementi di Ottica”, ed. Accademica (1995)

Notes on selected arguments are also available on the course website, under the section "Complementi"