Light is an excellent tool for gaining remote information without any contact to the object. Besides their contactless opertaing mode, optical measuring techniques owe their rapid spread into technology and science to their measuring accuracy and their excellent spatial and temporal resolution.

As a tool light has revolutionised industrial manufacturing. Within the last decade the laser in particular has changed the face of automotive manufacturing, micro- and nanotechnology. It has almost replaced traditional manufacturing methods such as spot welding and has become a standard tool. The rapid progress experienced in computer technology has only been possible thanks to modern optical technologies.

Laser and optical technology in general are an essential part of diagnostics and therapy in modern medicine. In order to understand the interaction between light and biological tissue   fundamental knowledge of both are needed.

Optical communication system technology is one of the most rapidly evolving fields and is driven by the ever-increasing demand for increased data transfer capacity and longer transmission length. These demands give rise to many exciting challenges for the development of next-generation of optical networks. The Optics in Communication and IT module provides the knowledge required to face these challenges.

Novel optical materials and efficient light sources provide the basis for optical systems design. Tailor-made optical materials and elements with engineered optical functionality have benefited from the technological progress in micro/nanostructuring.

Numerical simulations and computer-based techniques are an essential tool in optical technologies. The vast field of applications includes image-based modelling and rendering, multi-dimensional data visualisation, computer vision as well as simulation and optimisation of optical systems, lasers or optical fields in nanostructures. The dramatically increased power of today’s computer systems makes it possible to solve tasks that only few years ago seemed unfeasible. The Computational Optics module provides the basic knowledge needed to generate and implement computer-based methods and simulations such as these.

The learning outcome of the major topic Physics of light is for students to acquire knowledge on the physics behind optical technologies, knowledge that goes beyond the foundation modules (geometrical optics, wave optics, Fourier optics, quantum optics).