Syllabus for Optics
PHYS3126
Current Lecturer
Prof. Wen QIAO Email: wqiao@suda.edu.cn
Course Website
http://kczx.suda.edu.cn/G2S/Template/View.aspx?action=view&courseType=0&courseId=27845
Course Time
3rd Semester
Lectures: 3 sessions/week, 50min /session. 18 weeks.
Course Description
This course provides an introduction to optical science with elementary engineering applications. Topics covered in geometrical optics include: reflection and refraction, lens, mirrors, ray-tracing, lens design. Topics covered in wave optics include: basic electrodynamics, polarization, interference, Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction, image formation, resolution. Analytical and numerical tools used in optical design are emphasized.
Prerequisites
General Physics II (PHYS1026)
Textbooks
Hecht, Eugene. Optics. 4th ed. Pearson, 2004
姚启钧，光学教程（第四版），高等教育出版社，2008
Main contents
Week | Teaching Contents | Sessions | Objectives |
1 | Fermat’s Principle | 3 | Fermat’s principle; Snell’s law; total internal reflection |
2 | Thin lens and lens system | 3 | Image formation by a positive lens; image formation by a negative lens; |
3 | Thick lens and lens system; Aberration | 3 | image formation by lens system or thick lens. Get familiar with aberration |
4 | Optical components: mirror; prism & stops | 3 | Image formation by a mirror; dispersing prism; reflective prism; aperture stop |
5 | Optical instruments | 3 | Learn the optical properties of human eye; magnifier; telescope; microscope and camera |
6 | Wave theory | 3 | Understand the properties of light as a travelling wave; the superposition property of light; partial coherence |
7 | Interference 1: wavefront splitting interference and amplitude splitting interference | 3 | Young’s two-slit interference; fringes of equal inclination; fringes of equal thickness; Newton’s Ring |
8 | Interference 2: interferometer | 3 | Michelson interferometer; the applications and variations |
9 | Diffraction 1: Fraunhofer diffraction | 3 | diffraction from a single slit; rectangular and circular apertures; resolution; double slit diffraction; diffraction from many slits |
10 | Diffraction 2: the diffraction grating | 3 | the grating equation; dispersion of a grating; resolution of a grating |
11 | Diffraction 3: Fresnel diffraction | 3 | criterion for Fresnel diffraction; Fresnel diffraction from circular apertures; the Fresnel zone plate; |
12 | Polarization 1 | 3 | polarization by selective absorption; polarization by reflection from dielectric surface; polarization by scattering |
13 | Polarization 2 | 3 | Birefringence; double refraction |
14 | Polarization 3 | 3 | wave plates |
15 | The quantum property of light | 3 | Black-body radiation; the photoelectric effect; Compton effect; wave-particle duality |
16 | Scattering and absorption | 3 | Mie scattering and Rayleigh scattering; Beer-Lambert Law |
17 | Team project | 3 | Report team project in the class and review the contents in class |
Marking Scheme:
Homework | Project | Midterm | Final exam |
7% | 8% | 20% | 65% |
