The topics of the course include:
- Basics of crystalline and band structure of semiconductor materials, free and bound electrons and holes, excitons, plasmons and phonons.
- Optical measurement techniques.
- Interband, intraband, excitonic and phonon optical transitions.
- Semiconductor nanostructures, including technology and optical properties of quantum dots.
- Properties of the near field radiation, including generation, detection and analysis.
- Principles of operation and construction of a scanning near field optical microscope.
- Plasmonics of thin metallic layers and nanoparticles.