The Ph.D. program in Optical Science and Engineering is interdisciplinary involving six science and engineering departments [Physics & Optical Science, Chemistry, Mathematics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering & Engineering Science, and Computer Science], the Center for Optoelectronics & Optical Communications, and the Center for Precision Metrology. The program is administered through the Department of Physics & Optical Science. The purpose of the program is to educate scientists and engineers who will develop the next generation of optical technology. The program emphasizes basic and applied interdisciplinary education and research in areas of optics that include:  

    Optoelectronic devices and sub-assemblies
    Devices for telecommunications, sensors, and characterization
    Optical materials (semiconductors, polymer-organic and crystalline)
    Optical metrology
    Optical imaging
    Optical communication networks
    
 Applications of this research include:
    Optical telecom and data-com
    High efficiency, tunable narrow bandwidth laser sources and detectors
    Smart structures for distributed sensing
    Wireless technologies for communications and remote sensing
    Materials and surface characterization
    Nanostructured optical devices
    Microelectronics
 

Program Director

Administration of the Optical Science and Engineering program is the responsibility of the Optics Program Director. Questions relating to program requirements should be directed to the Program Director, Dr. Robert Tyson.

Degree Requirements

The degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Optical Science and Engineering is awarded for completion of scholarly research that advances the knowledge base in the field of that research. Evidence of this is demonstrated by a successful dissertation defense. Additionally, recipients of this degree should demonstrate mastery of relevant subject matter and a potential for success in future research and teaching.

The minimum requirement for the Ph.D. degree in Optical Science and Engineering is 72 credit hours beyond the baccalaureate degree that includes a minimum of 18 credit hours of dissertation and a minimum of 51 credit hours of formal coursework.

Each candidate for the degree must present:

•  5 courses (15 credit hours) from the Optics Core Curriculum. Students may be exempted from some, or all, of the Core Curriculum courses by passing part, or all, sections of the comprehensive qualifying examination;
• 3 semesters (3 credit hours) of Seminar (OPTI 8110);
• A minimum of 21 credit hours (7 courses) in formal courses having an OPTI prefix;
• A minimum of 44 credit hours of formal coursework selected from the list of optics electives and discipline specific courses approved for the optics program by the Interdisciplinary Optics Program Committee.

The remaining 7 credit hours needed to satisfy the requirement of 51 non-thesis credit hours are free electives, and may include additional coursework in courses approved for the optics program, independent study, seminar courses, and other discipline specific courses (i.e., computer science, chemistry, etc.) approved on a case-by-case basis by the student’s Advisory Committee and the Optics Program Director.

Course Load

The normal course load for a full-time physics graduate student is 9 semester hours. Gradu­ate Assistants must register for a minimum of 6 graduate-level semester hours during each semes­ter. Part-time graduate students may register for as few as 3 graduate-level semester hours in a semester.  

Grade Point Average

A student in the program must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 in all coursework attempted for the degree. An accumulation of two C grades will result in termination of the student’s enrollment in the program. A grade of U earned in any course will result in termination of the student’s enrollment in the program.

Opti Core Curriculum

All graduates of the program must demonstrate competency in each of the five courses, listed below, that comprise the Core Curriculum. Ph.D. students must enroll in the 8xxx version.

Core Courses

OPTI 6101/8101. Mathematical Methods of Optical Science and Engineering. (3) Topics include: matrix theory, series and Frobenius methods of solutions to ordinary differential equations, separation of variables techniques for partial differential equations, special functions, Fourier series, and transform methods. Topical coverage will emphasize applications specific to the field of optics. Three lecture hours per week. (Fall)

OPTI 6102/8102. Principles of Geometrical and Physical Optics. (3) Ray analysis of common optical elements (mirrors, lenses and systems of lenses, prisms). Reflection and refraction at plane and spherical surfaces, thin and thick lenses, lensmaker's equation, field of view, and numerical aperture. Wave properties of light, superposition of waves, diffraction, interference, polarization, and coherence. Optics of thin films. Three lecture hours per week. (Fall)
OPTI 6104/8104. Electromagnetic Waves. (3) Maxwell’s equations, the electromagnetic wave equation, and electromagnetic wave functions. Waves in dielectric and conducting media, dispersion. Reflection, refraction, transmission, internal reflection, and evanescent waves at an interface. Intensity. Introduction to guided waves. Three lecture hours per week. (Fall)

OPTI 6105/8105. Optical Properties of Materials. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6104/8104 or permission of the instructor. Photophysical and photochemical processes in materials. Linear and nonlinear optical properties of materials. Optical properties of semiconductors and crystals. Optical transmission, absorption, and reflection. Fluorescence of organic and inorganic materials. Chiral molecular systems. Three lecture hours per week. (Spring)

*OPTI 6211/8211. Introduction to Modern Optics. (3) Prerequisites: OPTI 6102/8102 and 6104/8104 or permission of the instructor.  Fourier analysis and holography, Coherence. Introduction to light production and detection. Optical modulation, including EO effect, Kerr effect, amplitude modulation, magnetooptic effect, photoelastic effect, and acousto-optic effect. Introduction to nonlinear optics. Photonic switching. Three lecture hours per week. (Spring)

*Students receiving credit for OPTI 6211/8211 prior to the spring semester of 2005 may not count OPTI 6211/8211 as a Core Course. The Core Course Requirement for those students would normally include OPTI 6103/8103.

Students may demonstrate competency in the subject matter of the Core Curriculum by earning a grade of Pass on each of the five sections of a comprehensive qualifying examination administered annually at the beginning of the fall term. Each section of the comprehensive examination is based on subject matter in one of the five courses comprising the Core Curriculum. Students failing to receive a grade of Pass on a given section of the comprehensive examination must enroll in the corresponding Core Curriculum course. Students demonstrate competency in the Core Curriculum by passing the comprehensive examination or by earning a grade of B or better in those core courses not passed during the comprehensive examination. Well-prepared students may earn a grade of pass on one or more of the five sections of the comprehensive examination. In those cases, credit hours that would have been earned in the courses upon which the sections passed were based may be replaced by credit hours in OPTI 69918991, Thesis/Dissertation Research, and/or other electives approved by the student’s Advisory Committee and the Optics Program Director.

Seminar

OPTI 8110. Seminar. (1) Prerequisite: Admission to Optics Ph.D. program. Topics include: discussion and analysis of topics of current interest in optics; effective techniques for making presentations and utilizing library materials; ethical issues in science and engineering. Attendance required. May be repeated for up to 3 hours credit. Three semesters of seminar required of students in the Optics Ph.D. program during the first two years of residence. One to two hours of seminar per week. (Fall/Spring)

Admission to Candidacy

Admission to Candidacy for the Degree is a formal process for all students. To be admitted to candidacy a student must demonstrate competency in the Core Curriculum and prepare an approved Plan of Study.  The Plan of Study must be approved before the end of the third semester following admission to the program. The Plan of Study form can be obtained from the Optics Program Director.

After successful completion of the Core Curriculum requirement and approval of the Plan of Study, the student will prepare a Research Plan for the thesis/dissertation that is approved by the Advisory Committee. The Research Plan must demonstrate: (a) the student’s knowledge of the relevant literature base, and (b) a research plan that, if successfully completed, will lead to an approved thesis. The student must present a written plan to the Advisory Committee. The student must also make an oral defense of the Research Plan at a presentation before the Advisory Committee.

After successfully demonstrating competency in the Core Curriculum, preparation of an approved Plan of Study, and approval of the Research Plan by the Advisory Committee, the student is admitted to candidacy. The qualifier, as described, must be completed within two years following admission to the program.

Ph.D. Dissertation

Each Ph.D. student will complete a minimum of 18 credit hours of dissertation research (OPTI 8991). The student must present a written dissertation to the Advisory Committee. The student must defend the dissertation at a presentation before the Optics Faculty. Upon approval of the written dissertation and oral presentation by the Advisory Committee, the student has successfully completed the dissertation requirement. The dissertation must be written using a format acceptable to the Graduate School.

Dissertation Research

OPTI 8991. Dissertation Research. (1 ­ 3) Prerequisite: Admission to candidacy. Research for the dissertation. May be repeated for a total of 30 credit hours. Graded Pass/Fail. (Fall/Spring/Summer)

OPTI 8999. Doctoral Residence. (1) Prerequisite: OPTI 8991. Required of all Optics Ph.D. students who have completed all requirements for the degree except the thesis defense and are taking no other courses. May be repeated for credit. Credit for this course does not count toward the degree. Graded Pass/Fail. (Fall/Spring/Summer)

Dissertation/Thesis Advisor and Advisory Committee

Each student in the program must have a Dissertation/Thesis Advisor and an Advisory Committee before being admitted to candidacy. The student should select a thesis/dissertation advisor before the end of the second year of residency. The student and the thesis/dissertation advisor jointly determine the advisory committee. The Thesis/Dissertation Advisor serves as Chair of the Advisory Committee and must be a member of the Optics

Faculty at UNC Charlotte. The thesis advisory committee must have at least 3 members, the dissertation advisory committee a minimum of 4 members. The majority of the advisory committee must be members of the Optics Faculty. Composition of the Advisory Committee must be approved by the Optics Program Director.

Optical Science and Engineering Faculty

Department of Physics and Optical Science
Vasily Astratov - Assistant Professor
Angela D. Davies - Assistant Professor
Faramarz Farahi - Professor
Michael A. Fiddy ­ Professor
Greg Gbur ­ Assistant Professor
Tsing-Hua Her - Assistant Professor
Terrill W. Mayes - Emeritus Professor
Patrick J. Moyer - Associate Professor
Jeff Naeini - Assistant Professor
M. Yasin Akhtar Raja -  Professor
Tom Suleski - - Assistant Professor
Robert K. Tyson -Associate Professor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Stephen M. Bobbio ­ Professor
James M. Conrad ­ Associate Professor
Kasra Daneshvar - Professor
Mohamad A. Hasan - Associate Professor
Raphael Tsu - Professor
Edward B. Stokes - Associate Professor
 
Department of Chemistry
Thomas D. DuBois ­ Professor
Bernadette T. Donovan-Merkert - Professor
Kenneth E. Gonsalves ­ Professor
Mahnaz El-Kouedi ­ Assistant Professor
Daniel S. Jones ­ Associate Professor
 Joanna K. Krueger ­ Assistant Professor
Jordan C. Poler - Associate Professor
Thomas A. Schmedake - Assistant Professor
Wade N. Sisk - Associate Professor
 
Department of Mathematics
Wei Cai ­ Professor
Yuri Godin ­ Assistant Professor
Michael V. Klibanov - Professor
Thomas R. Lucas ­ Professor
Stanislav Molchanov - Professor
Boris Vainberg - Professor
 
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Robert J. Hocken - Professor
Steven R. Patterson - Professor
 
Department of Computer Science
Teresa A. Dahlberg - Associate Professor
M. Taghi Mostafavi - Associate Professor
Kayvan Najarian ­ Assistant Professor
 
Department of Engineering Technology
Falih H. Ahmad - Associate Professor

Residency Requirement and Time To Degree

The Ph.D. student must satisfy the residence requirement for the program by completing 20 credit hours of continuous enrollment in coursework/dissertation credit. Residence is considered continuous if the student is enrolled in one or more courses in successive semesters until 20 credit hours are earned. All program requirements must be completed within 8 calendar years from the date the student is admitted into the program.

Approved Optics Electives

OPTI 6000/8000. Selected Topics in Optics. (3). Prerequisite: Consent of Optics Program Director. Selected topics in optics from areas such as medical optics, adaptive optics, all optical networks, etc. May be repeated for up to 6 hours of credit with consent of the Optics Program Director. (Fall/Spring/Summer)

OPTI 6103/8103. Light Sources and Detectors. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6211/8211. The nature of light, blackbody radiation.  Optical sources, including discharge lamps, light-emitting diodes, gas and solid state lasers. Quantum wells. Continuous wave and pulsed (mode-locked, Q-switched) lasers. Selected solid-state laser systems. Light detection, including thermal and quantum detectors, photomultiplier tubes, diode detectors. Noise in light sources and detectors. Three lecture hours per week. (Spring, Odd Years)

OPTI 6201/8202. Fourier Optics and Holography. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6102/8102 and OPTI 6104/8104. Principles of scalar, Fresnel, and Fraunhofer diffraction theory. Coherent optical data processing. Optical filtering and data processing. Holography. Three lecture hours per week. (Fall, Even Years)

OPTI 6205/8205. Advanced Optical Materials. (3) Prerequisites: OPTI 6104/8104 and OPTI 6105/8105 or ECGR 6133/8133. Molecular optical materials including fabrication methods. Luminescence centers; quenching. Nonlinear optics, including higher order terms of the susceptibility tensor. Photonic crystals.  Three lecture hours per week. (Fall, Odd Years)

OPTI 6212/8212. Integrated Photonics. (3) Prerequisites: OPTI 6102/8102 and OPTI 6104/8104. Theory and application of optical waveguides, free-space micro-optics, and integrated photonic devices. Fabrication and integration techniques, including motivations for choice of approach (hybrid vs. monolithic, materials, size, performance, etc). Modeling and simulation. Students will be required to work with mathematical packages such as Matlab and/or Mathematica to illustrate key concepts and to implement beam propagation/optical modeling simulations. Three lecture hours per week. (Spring, Odd Years)

OPTI 6221/8211. Optical Communications. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6102/8102 and OPTI 6103/8103. Introduction to optical communications and basic communication block such as lasers, optical modulators, and optical transceivers. Review of fibers (attenuation, dispersions, etc.). Optical amplifiers. Passive and active photonic components such as tunable lasers and filters. Coherent and incoherent detection. Signal processing, photonic switching, and point-to-point links / connections. Three lecture hours per week. (Spring, Even Years)

OPTI 6222/8222. Optical Communication Networks. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6221/8221 or graduate standing in ECE, CS, or IT. Optical signal coding, multiplexing and de-multiplexing. Time-domain medium access (TDM (SONET) and TDMA), wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM and WDMA). Optical networks, add-drop multiplexing (OADM), switching and routing technologies, Dispersion management. Optical clock and timing recovery. Optical amplification, wavelength conversion, transport, and networking protocols.  Broadband ISDN concepts. Access, metro, and long-haul network topologies. Three lecture hours per week. (Fall, Even Years)

OPTI 6241/8241. Optical System Function and Design. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6102/8102.  Advanced study of telescopes, microscopes, cameras, off-axis imaging systems, stops, apertures, multiple lenses, use and selection of ray trace computer codes. Three lecture hours per week. (Spring, Even Years)

OPTI 6242/8242. Optical Propagation in Inhomogeneous Media. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6102/8102 and OPTI 6104/8104.  Advanced study of free space propagation, scattering, and scintillation of Gaussian and uniform beam waves. Random processes, weak fluctuation theory, propagation through complex paraxial optical systems (Fall, Even Years)

OPTI 6244/8244. High Speed Photonics and Optical Instrumentation. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6103/8103 and OPTI 6104/8104. Study of instrumentation used for generation, detection, and manipulation of light in optical circuits.  Topics include ultrashort pulse generation, photon-phonon interactions, 2nd & 3rd harmonic generation, squeezed light, optical tweezers, OPO, electro-optic modulators, selective polarizers, optical switches, amplifiers, multiplexing and mixing schemes, and application of CCD and CMOS cameras and detectors.  Three lecture hours per week. (Spring, Odd Years)

OPTI 6261/8261. Modern Coherence Theory. (3)  Prerequisite: OPTI 6102/8102 and OPTI 6104/8104.  Stochastic processes.  Second order coherence of scalar and vector wavefields, radiation and states of coherence. Quantum wavefields.  (Fall, Odd Years)

OPTI 6271/8271. Advanced Physical Optics (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6101/8101, OPTI 6102/8102, and OPTI 6104/8104. Advanced study of electromagnetic wave propagation, stratified media, physics of geometrical optics, polarization and crystal optics, absorption and dispersion, interference, propagation and diffraction. Three lecture hours per week. (Spring, Odd Years)

OPTI 6281/8281. Modern Optics Laboratory. (3) Prerequisite: OPTI 6102/8102. Selected experiments in areas of modern optics such as fiber optics, interferometry, spectroscopy, polarization, optical metrology, and holography. Six laboratory hours per week. (Spring, Even Years)

OPTI 6691/8691. Research Seminar. (1 - 3) Prerequisite: Consent of student’s Advisory Committee. A seminar in which independent study may be pursued by the student, or a group of students, under the direction of a professor. May be repeated for up to a maximum of 6 credit hours. (Fall/Spring/Summer)
 

Approved Discipline Electives

Course                                                                                    Semester      &     Year Offered
                                                                                                                                     
CHEM 6082 Surfaces & Interfaces of Materials                            Spring                Even Years
CHEM 8147 Photochemistry                                                      Spring                Odd Years  
CHEM 8155 Polymer Synthesis                                                  Spring                Even Years
ECGR 5124 Digital Signal Processing                                          Spring                Annually
ECGR 5138 Electronic Thin Film Materials and Devices                Fall                    Annually      
ECGR 5140 Introduction to VSLI Processing                              Fall                    Annually
ECGR 5165 Laser Electronics                                                     Spring                Annually
ECGR 5197 Fundamentals of Optical Engineering                       Fall                    Annually
ECGR 8111 Systems Theory                                                      Fall                    Annually
ECGR 8118 Applied Digital Image Processing                             Spring                Even Years
ECGR 8121 Advanced Theory of Communications I                   Fall                    Even Years
ECGR 8122 Advanced Theory of Communications II                 Spring                Odd Years
ECGR 8125 Optoelectronic Information Processing                    Spring                Annually
ECGR 8132 Advanced Semiconductor Device Engineering I      Spring                Annually      
ECGR 8133 Advanced Semiconductor Device Engineering II     Fall                    Annually      
ITCS 8132 Performance Analysis of Communication Networks   Spring                Odd Years  
ITCS 8140 Data Visualization                                                     Spring                Odd Years
ITCS 8152 Computer Vision                                                      Spring                Odd Years
ITCS 8153 Neural Networks                                                      Fall                    Even Years
ITCS 8166 Computer Communications & Networks                    Fall                    Annually
ITCS 8168 Wireless Communication Networks                           Spring                Even Years
ITCS 8186 Application Specific System Design and Simulation    Fall                    Even Years
ITSC 8220 Pattern Recognition                                                 Fall                    Odd Years
ITCS 8224 Bio Image Processing                                              Spring                Odd Years
MATH 5143 Analysis I                                                              Fall                    Annually
MATH 5144 Analysis II                                                             Spring                Annually
MATH 5165 Numerical Linear Algebra                                       Fall                    Odd Years
MATH 5172 The Finite Element Method                                     Spring                Odd Years
MATH 5174 Partial Differential Equations                                   Fall                    Annually
MATH 5176 Numerical Methods for Partial Diff. Equations          Fall                    Even Years
MATH 8176 Advanced Numerical Analysis                                Spring                Even Years
MEGR 6181 Engineering Metrology                                          Fall                    Annually     
MEGR 7182 Machine Tool Metrology                                        Spring                Annually      
MEGR 7283 Advanced Coordinate Metrology                           Fall                    Annually
MEGR 8166 Mechanical Behavior of Materials I                         Spring                Annually      
PHYS 8131 Classical Electromagnetism I                                   Fall                    Even Years
PHYS 8132 Classical Electromagnetism II                                  Spring                Odd Years
PHYS 8141 Quantum Theory I                                                Spring                Odd Years
PHYS 8142 Quantum theory II                                                Fall                    Even Years
PHYS 8271 Solid State Physics                                                 Fall                    Odd Years