My notes (382 pages, 6″x9″) from the fall 2012 session of the University of Toronto Advanced Classical Optics course (PHY485H1F), taught by Prof. Joseph H. Thywissen, which I took as a non-degree student, are now available on amazon.com (through kindle-direct-publishing, formerly createspace).

These notes are available in three forms, two free, and one paper:

  • On amazon (kindle-direct-publishing) for $11 USD,
  • As a free PDF,
  • As latex sources (, makefiles, figures, …) to build/modify yourself.

The official course description at the time was:

This course builds on a student’s knowledge of basic electromagnetic theory by focusing attention on light including elementary aspects of the propagation of optical beams and their interaction with matter. We examine light polarization, coherence, interference and diffraction as we move towards a description of lasers within a semiclassical picture in which the fields are treated classically and matter is treated quantum mechanically. In between we discuss Gaussian beam modes and their relation to optical resonators as well as fibre and slab waveguides

This bookish collection of notes is dedicated to my mom.