General information on the Physical optics chair
Physical optics chair was founded in 1962 on the initiative of academician K.D. Synelnykov. The first head of the chair was D.Sc., professor I.M. Shklyarevsky. During 1990—2003 the chair was headed by D.Sc., professor V.K. Miloslavsky; during 2003—2015 by D.Sc., professor L.O. Ageev; during 2015—2023 by D.Sc., professor M.Z. Galunov; from 2023 it is headed by corresponding member of NASU, professor S.I. Tarapov.
The chair trains specialists of Bachelor's degree and Master's degree (by two programs, educational-professional and educational-scientific) by specialty 'E5 — physics and astronomy'. Also there are courses for postgraduates. Chair's teachers collaborate with schools: they actively paricipate in work of regional center of Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in the work of physical nad mathematical study groups at Teacher's House and in refresher training for physics teachers of Kharkiv city and Kharkiv region.
Chair's alumni work both in Ukraine and abroad. As for scientific organizations in Kharkiv, these are the following: B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering of NASU, Institute for Single Crystals of NASU, National Scientific Center 'Institute of Metrology', National Scientific Center 'Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology', O.Ya. Usikov Institute for Radiophysics and Electronics of NASU. Our alumni also work in industries and as teachers in schools and universities. More than 20 of them got D.Sc. degrees and lead departments in scientific organizations.
The main scientific and educational specialization of the chair is optics and spectroscopy. In different times research was conducted in the fields of crystal phosphor luminescence, metal optics, optics and magnetooptics of semiconductors, multilayer interference coatings, optics of photosensitive films, metamaterials. During the years of chair existence the teachers of the chair defended 4 dissertations for the Candidate of Sciences degree and 2 for the Doctor of Sciences degree. Also the chair trained 44 Candidates of Sciences through postgraduate courses.
Current research is conducted in the following fields: nonlinear optics of waveguide photosensitive films and other optically induced dissipative structures, optics of nanoscaled metal films, spectral properties of metamaterials, spectroscopy of semiconductors.