Since the invention of the laser some fifty years ago, optics (and especially sensors and nanotechnology) has undergone a rapid development and become a significant part of physics, technology and industry as well as of our everyday lives. Just imagine that without the laser, things such as the DVD-player would not have existed and you would not have been able to print on a laser printer!
With an academic profile in Optics, Sensors and Nanotechnology you will acquire specialist skills in a broad area, primarily linked to the design and fabrication of nanostructured functional materials as well as the characteristics of light and its interaction with atoms, molecules and matter. Applications that exploit these aspects are the primary focus of this academic profile.
Science of light and colour
Optics is not about glasses and contact lenses; it is about the science of light and colour. The profile includes theories on how to produce light in for example lasers, the scattering of light in different matter, and theories of how light exchanges energy with the matter it strikes. Laser light which interacts with nanostructured noble metals is also able to bind to the metal; something which will enable you to use nanometre thin gold wires to guide light.
While specialising, you build on your already strong foundation in physics, technology and mathematics. This provides you with a deeper knowledge of especially advanced optics, quantum physics, material physics and molecule physics, nanophysics and the fabrication of nanostructures. These subjects enable you to work interdisciplinary with basic problems in this academic front area.
In addition, you will acquire expertise in measuring and analysing optical signals – with special focus on, for example, highly sensitive sensors combined with intelligent data analysis.
In your master thesis project you can work in one of the university's exciting research areas related to the academic profile.
This could for example be nanooptics, where you utilise the fact that light can be intensified millions of times when it interacts with tiny gold particles. By optimising this process it is possible to create highly sensitive single-molecule sensors which can detect, for example, pesticides on the surface of vegetables or fruits.
Find more information in Curriculum and course descriptions.