| Aug. 29 |
Introduction Course outline, administration, overview; General principles of the detection of radiation |
| Aug. 31 |
Direct detection 1 Single and multiplexed optical detectors; responsivity, dark current, background (and flat-fielding, dark/bias measurements) |
| Sept. 5 |
Labor Day -- no class |
| Sept. 7 |
Direct detection 2 Photon detectors; High energy detectors: solid state, scintillation, gas, Cherenkov |
| Sept. 12 |
Direct detection 3 Bolometers and calorimeters from the submillimeter to X-rays |
| Sept. 14 |
Coherent detection 1 Heterodyne receivers: amplifiers, mixers, sidebands, dB, dBm, etc. |
| Sept. 19 |
Coherent detection 2 Signal to noise ratios, radiomteter equation, noise cascade |
| Sept. 21 |
Statistics 1 Refresher: Distributions: binomial, Poisson, Normal, chi-squared; Measures: mean, standard deviation, standard error estimate, error propagation |
| Sept. 26 |
Statistics 2 Application to noise: source-, background-, and quantum limited detection; Hypothesis testing and confidence limits |
| Sept. 28 |
Statistics 3 The Bayesian approach |
| Oct. 3 |
Statistics 4 An introduction to exploring distributions with MCMC techniques |
| Oct. 5 |
Optics 1 Geometric optics, ray tracing. Optical layouts for X-ray, prime focus, Cassegrain, Gregorian, Nasmyth telescopes |
| Oct. 10 |
Optics 2 Diffraction and introduction to Fourier optics |
| Oct. 12 |
Fourier series and transforms 1 Introduction, definitions, basic principles and limits |
| Oct. 17 |
Fourier series and transforms 2 Transform theorems and their applications |
| Oct. 19 |
MIDTERM EXAM |
| Oct. 24 |
Fourier series and transforms 3 Sampling, aliasing, convolution |
| Oct. 26 |
Fourier series and transforms 4 The FFT, spectra and filtering |
| Oct. 31 |
Optics 3 Filled aperture telescopes: beams, point spread functions, tapered illumination |
| Nov. 2 |
Optics 4 Aperture phase, adaptive and active optics |
| Nov. 7 |
Interferometry 1 Introduction to interferometry |
| Nov. 9 |
Interferometry 2 Phased and multiplying arrays: from Michelson to Ryle |
| Nov. 14 |
Interferometry
3 Synthesis arrays and earth rotation |
| Nov. 16 |
Interferometry 4 Imaging, deconvolution of incompletely sampled data |
| Nov. 21 |
Spectral analysis 1 Overview, colors, filters, prisms, calorimeters |
| Nov. 23 |
Thanksgiving break -- no class |
| Nov. 28 |
Spectral analysis 2 Gratings, echelles, filter banks |
| Nov. 30 |
Spectral analysis 3 Fabry-Perot, multi-layer reflectors and anti-reflection coatings, microwave filters |
| Dec. 5 |
Spectral analysis 4 Fourier transform spectrometers, correlators |
| Dec. 7 |
Gravitational wave detection |
| Dec. 12 |
Frames of reference:
velocities, times, and so on |
| Dec 17 |
FINAL EXAM,
1:30-3:30 NOTE THAT THIS IS A
SATURDAY |