This is the second activity within PWF Pakistan: Advancing Optics and Photonics Education for Women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, this time at Women University Swabi. The project is organized in collaboration with Active Learning in Optics (ALO) Group, OPTICA Student Chapter and ICO territory Pakistan based at Department of Physics Quaid-i-Azam University.

Women universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) have limited access to experimental physics and emerging fields such as quantum electronics and quantum optics. This project introduces affordable hands-on activities and crash courses in introductory and advanced Optics and Quantum Optics to strengthen practical skills and conceptual understanding. Using the Active Learning in Optics (ALO) approach, the program builds local capacity, boosts student confidence, and prepares young women for advanced studies and future opportunities in photonics, quantum science, and high-technology sectors.

The activity will include a course on Laser physics, with pre-requisites courses on Waves and Optics. The following subjects will be covered:

Fundamentals of lasers: spontaneous and stimulated emission, absorption, pumping schemes, gain coefficients, properties of laser beams: monochromaticity, coherence, directionality, brightness
laser resonators: plane-parallel (Fabry-Perot), concentric, confocal, generalized spherical, ring-resonators, matrix formulation of geometrical optics: wave reflection and transmission, stability conditions, rate-equation approach: threshold condition laser types and techniques: q-switching, mode-locking, applications of lasers.

Demonstrations of optical phenomena using web-cam and hands-on activities related to theory will be included.

Project coordinator: Dr. Imrana Ashraf, Department of Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University