Description:
The course is aimed to graduates in electronic engineering and provides a description of the laser-based instruments that are nowadays commonly used in several fields of science and engineering. The background required is: the very basics of lasers and electronic circuits, and a background knowledge of noise and measurements. The expertise gained with the course is: (i) knowledge of the working principles, basic configurations and performances of electro-optical instruments; attitude to develop new configurations of the considered instruments optimised for a given purpose; Attitude to evaluate the ultimate performances of electro-optical instruments.

Topics Covered:
Alignment, Pointing and Sizing Instruments (Laser Level -Wire Diameter Sensor - Particle Sizing) Laser Telemeters (Triangulation - Time of Flight Telemeters - Power Budget - System Equation - Accuracy of the Pulsed Telemeter - Accuracy of the Sine-Wave Telemeter - The Ambiguity Problem - Intrinsic Precision and Calibration -Instrumental Developments of Telemeters - The LIDAR )
Laser Interferometry (Basic Laser Interferometer - Measuring with Interferome-ter - Performance Parameters - Ultimate Limits - Speckle-Related Errors - Read-out Configurations of Interferometry - Laser Vibrometry - Other Applications of Injection Interferometry - Absolute Distance Measurements - Angle Measurements - White Light Interferometry - Profilometry)
Speckle-Pattern Instruments (Speckle Properties - Speckle in Single-Point Interferometers - Speckle Regime in Vibration Measurements - Speckle Regime in Displacement Measurements ) Velocimetry (Principle of Operation - The Velocimeter as an Iinterferometer - Performance Parameters - Accuracy of the Doppler Frequency - Alignment and Positioning Error- Direction Discrimination- Placement of the Photodetector - Particle Seeding - Electronic Processing of the Doppler Signal - Time Domain Processing - Optical Configurations)
Electro-Optical Gyroscopes (The Sagnac Effect – Basic Configurations – Deve-lopment of the RLG - The Dithered Laser Ring Gyro DRLG - The Ring Zeeman Laser Gyro - Performances of RLGs - The Fiber Optics Gyro - The Open-Loop Fiber Optic Gyro - Requirements - Technology to Implement the FOG - The Closed-Loop FOG - The Resonant Gyro and Other Configurations - Integrated Gyro Configurations - Other Approaches, MEMS, piezo )
Fiber Optic Sensors (Introduction - Classification of OFS - Outline of OFS - The Optical Strain Gage: A Case Study - Readout Configuration -Intensity Readout - Polarimetric Readout - Interferometric Readout - Multiplexied and Distributed OFS)

Credits: 3
Mode of Examination/Test: A small number of homework followed by a final examination.
Textbook: S. Donati `Electro-Optical Instrumentation - Sensing and Measuring with Lasers, Prentice Hall, USA, 2004 XVIII+425 pages, bound ISBN 013 0161610-9
Website: www.pearsonptg.com/book_detail/0,3771,0130616109,00.html