This lecture course will provide an introduction into principles of modern optics, including applications in science and daily life. Questions that will be addressed are for example: What are light waves and light rays? How can we describe light propagation in matter? Why are evanescent waves useful in touch pads? What is the diffraction limit and how can it be overcome? What is so special about laser light? How can ultrashort laser pulses take movies of the vibration of molecules?

 A rough outline of the lecture course is as follows:

• From Maxwell equations to optics
• Plane waves: reflection, refraction and diffraction
• Light rays: eikonal and geometrical optics
• Coherent and incoherent light
• Laser fundamentals
• Femtosecond and nonlinear optics