THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON 3650:406/506 - Physical Optics
TEXT: Optics by Eugene Hecht  (3rd Ed, 1987) Addison Wesley

Instructor:  Peter Henriksen
Phone:  972-6054; Office:  Room 10, Ayer Hall
Office Hours:  11:30-12:00 Tue. and Thurs. or by appointment

Course Outline:

Wave Motion
1-D Waves, Complex Representation, Harmonic waves, Phase and Phase Velocity, Plane Waves, The Wave Equation

Electromagnetic Theory, Photons and Light
    Baasic Laws of Electromagnetic Theory, E-M Waves, Energy and Momentum of Light: Irradiance, Light in Matter: Index of Refraction, Scattering, Absorption And Dispersion, Propagation of E-M Waves in Dielectric Media.

The Propagation of Light
    Reflection, Refraction, Derivation of Fresnel Equations, Applications of Fresnel Equations
    Reflection from Metal Surfaces

The Superposition of Waves
    Standing Waves, Beats, Group Velocity, Fourier Analysis, Fourier Integrals, Pulses and Packets

Polarization
    The nature of polarized light, Methods of obtaining polarized light: Dichroism, Birefringence, Reflection, and Scattering.

Interference
    Conditions for Interference, Interferometers, Multiple Beam Interference,  Applications of Single and Multilayer Films

Diffraction and Diffractive Optics
    Fraunhofer Diffraction, The Single Slit, Double Slits, Multiple Slits, Rectangular Aperture, Circular Aperture,  Fresnel Diffraction, Zone Plates,

Fourier Optics
    Fourier Transforms, Applications, Dirac Delta Function, Convolutions, Apodizations, Parseval’s Theorem, Spectra and Correlation, Transfer Functions

Coherence Theory
    Visibility, Mutual Coherence, and Degree of Coherence.

Quantum Nature of Light
    Quantum Fields, Blackbody Radiation, Photons, Probability and Wave Optics.

Classroom Activities:

    Classroom time will be used to review background material and for discussing end-of-chapter problems. Whenever applicable, computers with symbolic math software (Maple)  will be employed. Using Maple eliminates tedious mathematical calculations while emphasizing an understanding of the physical phenomenon related to the calculations. In particular, Maple will be used for solving differential equations and plotting their solutions; for superimposing waves; for illustrating interference, diffraction, and making animated plots; for examining Fresnel’s equations; and for Fourier optics .

Quizzes and Grades:

    There will be four quizzes during the semester; the last of theses quizzes will be the final exam. Each quiz will be scored on the basis of 100 points and will be 18% of your final grade. Homework will count 28% of the final grade.

Bibliography:
 

1. AUTHOR       Klein, Miles V.,
    TITLE             Optics
    CALL #          QC357.2 .K55..
    IMPRINT       New York, Wiley [1970]

2. AUTHOR       Born, Max, 1882-1970.
    TITLE             Principles of optics; electromagnetic theory of propagation, interference and diffraction of light,
                                   by Max Born and Emil Wolf. With contributions by A.B. Bhatia [and others]
    EDITION        6th ed.
    CALL #           QC355 .B63 1996
    IMPRINT      Oxford, New York, Pergamon Press, 1996.

3. AUTHOR        Guenther, Robert
    TITLE              Modern Optics
    EDITION        1st ed.
    IMPRINT       John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1990.

4. AUTHOR       Mandel, Leonard.
    TITLE             Optical coherence and quantum optics / Leonard Mandel and Emil Wolf.
    CALL #          QC403 .M34 1995.
    IMPRINT       Cambridge [England] ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1995.

5. AUTHOR        Lipson, S.G., H. Lipson, and D.S. Tannhauser
    TITLE              Optical Physics
    EDITION         3rd ed.
    IMPRINT Cambridge [England] ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1995.