Due to the nature of light fields of laser waves and pulses as vector quantities with complex spatial distribution and temporal dependence, the optics and photonics courses have always been difficult to teach and learn without the support of graphical visualization, numerical simulations and hands-on experiments. One of the state-of-the-art method of computational photonics, the finite-difference time-domain(FDTD) method, is applied with MATLAB simulations to model typical teaching cases in optics and photonics courses. The obtained results with graphical visualization in the form of animated pictures allow students to more deeply understand the dynamic process of light interaction with classical optical structures. The discussed teaching methodology is aimed to enhance the teaching effectiveness of optics and photonics courses and arousing the students' learning interest.

Date Published: 16 August 2017
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 10452, 14th Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2017, 104521W (16 August 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2270722

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10452:
14th Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2017
Xu Liu; Xi-Cheng Zhang, Editor(s)