PHY2208 Optics

2007-2008

Code: PHY2208
Title: Optics
Instructors: Dr T.J. Harries
CATS credits: 10
ECTS credits: 5
Availability: unrestricted
Level: 2
Pre-requisites: N/A
Co-requisites: N/A
Background Assumed: PHY1001, Fundamental Electromagnetism I (PHY1104), Waves and Oscillators (PHY1106) and Mathematics for Physicists (PHY1116)
Duration: Semester II
Directed Study Time: 22 lectures
Private Study Time: 66 hours
Assessment Tasks Time: 12 hours
Observation report: 2001/02 SJM

Aims

Optics has become a vital technology in the world around us. Its historic obsession with "pins, mirrors and thin-lenses" has been shattered by the invention of the laser. The relatively new discipline of "photonics" is set to rise, in the twenty-first century, to rival electronics in its range of industrial and scientific applications. The modern advances rest however on basic principles which together form the various "approximate theories" used to describe light and its propagation :- geometrical optics, scalar and vector wave theory and quantum optics. By gaining an understanding of these basic ideas, the student will acquire the background necessary to study modern photonic devices and applications in various optional course such as optoelectronics, communication physics and device physics.

Intended Learning Outcomes

After completing this module, the student should be able to:

Module Specific Skills

• locate the image formed by a simple lens or mirror.
• derive basic lens and mirror relations such as the lens makers formula.
• describe the basic types of reflecting and refracting telescopes
• describe the origin and use of total internal reflection (TIR).
• describe Young's experiment using complex amplitudes and phasors.
• discuss thin-film interference fringes and anti-reflection coatings.
• calculate the properties needed by an optimal anti-reflection coating.
• describe the diffraction grating and Fabry-Perot interferometer and their use as spectrometers, and calculate their dispersion and resolving power.
• describe the Michelson interferometer, calculate its interference fringe pattern and discuss its use as a spectrometer.
• describe the Huygens-Fresnel principle and Fraunhofer diffraction.
• sketch the Fraunhofer diffraction pattern of simple 2-D apertures.
• calculate the diffraction limited resolution of a simple imaging system.
• discuss the origin of polarisation, its generation and manipulation via dichroism and birefringence.
• describe important features of laser light such as coherence, monochromaticity and directionality.

Discipline Specific Skills

• problem solving

Personal and Key Skills

• retrieve information, self-learn, manage time.

Learning and Teaching Methods

Lectures, tutorials and problems classes. on-line teaching resources

Assignments

Three problem sheets to be completed as homework.

Assessment

One 30-minute test (20%), Problems Classes (10%) and one 90-minute examination (70%)

Syllabus Plan and Content

1. Geometrical Optics
   1. Imaging and ray tracing
   2. Thin-lenses
   3. Total internal reflection
2. Physical Optics
   1. Scalar-wave interference
      1. Young's experiment
      2. Diffraction-grating spectrometer
      3. Thin films and anti-reflection coatings
      4. Fabry-Perot interferometer
      5. Michelson interferometer
   2. Scalar-wave diffraction
      1. The Huygens-Fresnel principle
      2. Fraunhofer diffraction
      3. Diffraction limited resolution
   3. Polarization
      1. Electromagnetic interpretation
      2. Generation by polarizers, reflection and scattering
      3. Birefringence
3. Lasers
   1. Properties of laser light
   2. Basic operation

Core Text

Pedrotti F.L. and Pedrotti F.J.L.S. , Introduction to Optics, Prentice-Hall (UL: 535 PED)

Supplementary Text(s)

Feynman R.P., Leighton R.B. and Sands M. (1963), Lectures on Physics, Vol. I, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-02116-1 (UL: 530 FEY/X)
Hecht E. (1987), Optics (2^nd edition), Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201116111 (UL: 535 HEC)
Pain H.J. (2005), The Physics of Vibrations and Waves (6^th edition), Wiley, ISBN 0-470-01296-X (UL: 531.32 PAI)
Young H.D. and Freedman R.A. (2000), University Physics (with Modern Physics) (10^th edition), Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-60336-5 (UL: 530 YOU)

Formative Mechanisms

This module is supported by problems classes and tutorials. Students are able to monitor their own progress by attempting problems sheets provided in the lectures. The graded mid-semester test scripts are discussed by tutors. Students with specific problems should first approach their tutor, and if the problem persists, the lecturer.

Evaluation Mechanisms

The module will be evaluated using information gathered via the student representation mechanisms, the staff peer appraisal scheme, and measures of student attainment based on summative assessment.