Quantum Mechanics in the headlines today captures the imagination of the public, deep wallets of investors and industries, and prioritizes academic and national research programs throughout the world. It all begins with superposition and entanglement. Canonical educational approaches, however, may not build the intuitive or the computational ability required of practitioners where quantum is center-stage. An APS News front-page article by Meredith Fore details and explores the current situation: ”The Newest Frontier: Building a Skilled workforce. Education in Quantum Mechanics has lagged for years. Experts are trying to change this.” Here we highlight innovations and experiences coupling our curriculum, advanced labs, and undergraduate research to best address these educational questions and skills-based needs. Our approaches are based on ready-available two-state, two-particle entangled light source table-top experiments and finite-dimensioned (familiar) vector spaces as opposed to infinitely dimensioned function-space solutions to differential equations with little intuitive connection and/or easy access to experimental experience. Our Physics and Photonics and Optical Engineering Quantum I course has migrated from a traditional text to one espousing these new directions (M. Beck. Quantum Mechanics, Theory and Experiment) and our experiments are centered around a commercially available educational entanglement source (Quantum Design, quTool’s quED) with avalanche single-photon detectors, coincidence electronics, with standard and add-on experiments that are in step with the text but, as a kit, come more student-ready. This approach may better promote quantum technologies, prepare scientists, technicians, and engineers, and offer deeper insight to what quantum is really telling us.
As part of new programs at Bridgewater State University (BSU), including a new Photonic and Optical Engineering BS program and a Photonics Technician certificate program, we have developed new optics and fiber optics courses based on discrete fiber and optical components that we have put together into a single kit. These courses and kits are useful to teach fundamentals of optics and fiber optics to various level audiences ranging from high school, community college students, university level physics and engineering students. In this paper, we are including the details of the fiber optics experiments as well as the equipment used for each experiment. A subsequent paper details the optics course and a dedicated paper on the kit itself will follow later. These experiments include laser safety training along with the details of laser safety goggles. Class 2 visible laser is used to couple the light into single-mode, multi-mode, polarization maintaining fibers and fiber couplers. Students learn the beam walking techniques for optical alignment by using the over-the-counter discrete optical components such as lenses, mirrors, iris and polarizers. In addition to the optical alignment skills, students work on power measurements, and calculate the coupling efficiency, propagation loss and bending loss. Polarization measurements are added to compliment the understanding of electromagnetic fields. These experiments emphasizing on the fundamentals of free space fiber optics, will open a pathway for students to continue to the field of integrated photonics and will help to fill the demands of both technicians and engineers in industry.
In this work, we present an optics modular course with a strong emphasis on hands-on training with state-of-the-art elements in free space. We provide a list of the equipment required as well as the learning outcomes for modules in specific laws of light phenomena like reflection, refraction, polarization, and interference. These kits could be used for more advanced teaching and training of engineers, making a very versatile set of equipment to be used for diverse audiences. We will also present the experience of the first cohort of a technician program with a diverse background and their feedback. This proposed course will promote in-demand skills for advanced manufacturing in the optics and photonics industries.
MassTech Collaborative has helped to make the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a beacon for advanced manufacturing. In partnership with the AIM Photonics manufacturing institute, MassTech has launched five Laboratories for Education and Application Prototypes (LEAPs) within academic institutions spread widely across Massachusetts, to develop a skilled workforce in integrated photonics. Hands-on and in-person workshops, bootcamps and laboratory courses are offered at these LEAPs to learners from academia, industry, and the government. The MA LEAP network stands as an excellent self-sustaining model for hands-on STEM education and workforce training for the rest of the country.
As part of an educational Optics and Photonics kit being developed for new programs at Bridgewater State University (BSU), including a new Photonic and Optical Engineering BS program and a Photonics Technician certificate, we are creating several lab exercises emphasizing both, skills and quantitative analysis, for the understanding of light, for instance the coupling of free-space laser light into fibers. These experiments include lenses, inverse telescope, objective, aperture and mirrors to couple class 2 visible laser light into single-mode and multi-mode fibers. In addition to the optical alignment and focusing skills required, students measure the transmitted power and minimize the coupling losses, quantifying them in decibels (dB). Students create scattering matrices and make numerical aperture (NA) estimations. Polarization control measurements are added to compliment the understanding of electromagnetic fields. In time we will expand the kit to include lab experiments that cover full courses in both free-space and fiber optics to meet the demands of both technicians and engineers in industry.
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