Integration of Photonics and Electronics in the Undergraduate Physics Laboratory

这个项目将电子学和光子学整合到一个单一的高年级物理实验课程中。新课程的结构充分利用了光子学和电子学之间强大的教学联系，使学生既能掌握仪器的实际操作能力，又能全面理解理论原理。在许多高质量的本科物理课程中，实践电子学课程一直是一个重要的组成部分。然而，由于近年来基于激光的光子学技术的巨大影响，物理学本科生也必须获得光子学原理和光纤仪器的丰富经验。光电子技术的研究和开发已经对美国经济产生了重大影响。当他们开始他们的研究生或工业生涯时，物理专业的学生显然受益于深入了解光子学相对于电子学的优势，因为许多应用需要高带宽，低损耗或提高灵敏度。学生必须获得尽可能多的实践经验，并且课程必须包括目前使用高质量单模光纤的应用。在拟议的实验课程中，要求开设一门光学讲座课程。新实验室可由从事电子和光子学实验的物理专业学生获得两个学分，也可由从事光子学研究的工程科学专业学生获得一个学分。实验课程结构是将光子学广泛纳入本科物理课程的典范。

This project is integrating electronics and photonics into a single upper-division physics laboratory course. The new course has been structured to take advantage of the strong pedagogical links between photonics and electronics, and to enable students to obtain both hands-on competence with the instrumentation and a thorough understanding of the theoretical principles. A hands-on electronics course has long been an important staple within many quality undergraduate physics programs. However, due to the enormous recent impact of laser-based photonics technologies, physics undergraduates must also obtain significant experience with the principles of photonics and fiber-optics instrumentation. Research and development in photonics technology has already had major effects on the U.S. economy. As they begin their graduate or industrial careers, physics students clearly benefit from an in-depth understanding of the advantages of photonics over electronics for many applications requiring high bandwidth, low loss, or improved sensitivity. It is imperative that students gain as much hands-on experience as possible, and that the course include current applications employing high-quality single-mode fiber. A lecture course in optics, is being required with the proposed laboratory course. The new laboratory can be taken either for two credits by physics majors, who are carrying out both electronics and photonics experiments, or for one credit by engineering science majors, who are conaentrating on the photonics investigations. The laboratory course structure serves as a model for widespread incorporation of photonics into the undergraduate physics curriculum.