Advanced Electrodynamics of Complex Media

Catalog description

Graduate-level course on advanced topics in applied electrodynamics, metamaterials, and nanophotonics. The flow of electromagnetic waves can be controlled and molded with engineered (meta)materials and wave-guiding structures, for applications ranging from radio frequencies to visible light, and from large antenna/radar systems to nanoscale optics. Topics include the optical/electromagnetic properties of materials; conservation laws and theorems; causality and Kramers-Kronig relations; wave propagation in complex continuous media (anisotropic, dissipative, dispersive, chiral, nonlocal, nonreciprocal, hyperbolic, etc.) and periodic structures; coupled-mode theory in space and time; mode degeneracies and singularities; geometric phase and topology in wave physics. The course also introduces several topics at the forefront of applied research in this field, including nonreciprocal devices, super-resolution imaging, non-Hermitian physics, topological and time-varying photonics.