Optics

Optics here means treating light as a wave you can actually compute with — starting from the scalar Helmholtz equation, layering on Gaussian beams and Fourier-domain propagation, then upgrading to the full vector Maxwell picture for polarization, anisotropic media, and waveguides. You'll work through problem sets and quizzes built around Saleh & Teich, plus a lab component where diffraction, interference, and imaging stop being equations and start being patterns on a screen. It's the bridge between the EM theory you saw in earlier field courses and anything photonics-adjacent later — fiber communications, imaging systems, lasers — so the Fourier-optics machinery you build here keeps paying off.