Lecture 1: Intro to Optics,

Spatial Filtering
ECEN 5005, Graduate Optics Laboratory
Dr. Tony Barsic

1
Basic Course Info
● Lecture: Wednesday 1:00 - 2:15 pm, ECEE 265
● Lab: Thursday 10:30 am - 1:30 pm, ECEE 105 (just off main lobby)
● Instructor: Dr. Tony Barsic (me!)
○ I will be your instructor for the optics labs
○ [email protected]
○ Office Hours:
■ My office is on east campus, at LASP. I can sometimes meet on main campus (most easily just
after lecture or lab), but not always possible.
■ Designated office hours Friday 12-1pm, but let me know beforehand.
■ Ideal times: just after lecture (W 2:15-3:30), just after lab (Th1:30).
■ Perhaps I will have spare time during Undergrad lab (W3:30-6:30).
■ If you can come to LASP on East Campus, I can more flexible with times. Same goes for
arranging a discussion over zoom.
○ About me: doctorate in this department, worked at a start-up, taught as adjunct, now work at
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
○ Areas of focus: image processing, optical system design, microscopes, telescopes, spectroscopy,
polarization

2
Policies
● Lab Rules
○ Safety!
■ No jewelry, watches (reflections are an eye hazard!). This includes your smart watch.
■ Communicate with lab partners. (“I’m turning on the laser.”; “I’m unblocking the beam.”)
■ “Never look into laser beam with 1 remaining good eye.”
○ If you break something, let me know. You won’t be in trouble.
○ No food or drink in the labs
● Lab formats
○ Prelab - to be completed before lab begins. Turn in digitally on Canvas as part of your lab report. However,
this must be done before lab! You will need calculations from the prelab.
○ Lab reports - take thorough notes during lab, but prepare a formal lab report (turn in digitally on Canvas)
■ Notes can be on paper, or on your laptop. Laptops will be useful for many of the labs for looking at
images from digital cameras. I recommend you get a scientific program for inspecting images (matlab
works, and/or ImageJ. Practice loading images and inspecting them.)
○ Lab reports are due 1 week after lab (due at the beginning of lab time, Thursdays 10:30am)
○ Collaboration is encouraged, but the work you turn in must be your own. Identical work and plagiarism
are not acceptable.

3
Schedule

● For labs 2 & 3 (optics

labs), you will cycle
through the labs (we
only have 1-2 of each
set-up)
● Lab 3: Choose 1, either
Telescope or
Microscope
● Lab 7: Choose 1 of
Polarization,
Interferometry, or
Spectroscopy

4
Schedule (2)
Schedule, part 2

5
Choose Telescope or Microscope
● Assignment for this week:
○ In Canvas, download and read the labs for Microscopes and Telescopes
○ Pick which one you want to do and let me know (Canvas poll, or a sign-up document)
○ Choice due by the beginning of lab next week 1/26 (10:30 am Thursday)

6
Tell me about yourselves
● Are you all 1st-yr grad students? In ECEE?
● Have you taken geometrical optics, fourier optics, physical optics, lasers?
● Have you worked in an optics lab before?
● Are you doing research, or just focusing on coursework/prelim?

7
Lecture 1 Technical Content
● 1: Basic Geometrical Optics
● 2: Using lenses for Focusing and Collimation
● 3: Focusing: the Diffraction limit
● 4: A brief view of Spatial Filtering
● 5: Very brief overview of Telescope and Microscope labs

8
Lecture 1 Technical Content
● 1: Basic Geometrical Optics
● 2: Using lenses for Focusing and Collimation
● 3: Focusing: the Diffraction limit
● 4: A brief view of Spatial Filtering
● 5: Very brief overview of Telescope and Microscope labs

9
 Geometrical Optics: What are Rays?
● They’re not real!
○ Some optical phenomena are best understood using waves, other times particles
○ Rays are neither. More closely connected to waves.
● Rays are a useful abstraction
Snapshot in time of equi-phase planes,
○ Propagating wave -> wavefronts -> rays i.e. locations of E-field maxima

Images 1&2 from Trebino, Physics 3232, Georgia

Tech. Image 3 from Brian A. Barsky,
researchgate.net, 10
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Illustration-of-different-wavefronts-a-Planar
-wavefront-from-parallel-rays-b_fig2_267411736
Raytracing, positive lenses
1. A ray through the center of the lens is
undeviated
2. An incident ray parallel to the optic axis goes
through the back focal point
3. An incident ray through the front focal point
emerges parallel to the optic axis.
and occasionally useful:
4. Two rays that are parallel in front of the lens
intersect at the back focal plane.
5. Corollary: two rays that intersect at the front
focal plane emerge parallel.
(5b. Rays are reversible)

11
Most lenses in lab are positive lenses! There are similar rules for negative lenses (not covered here).
 Online Raytracing Tool
● https://phydemo.app/ray-optics/
○ Or, google “online ray optics simulation”
● There are many others! Let me know if you find a good one.

12
Images on this and subsequent slides are screenshots from phydemo.app/ray-optics/
Raytracing
Example, 1/5
Object 1.5 focal lengths
in front of a positive
lens.
Grid spacing is 20mm,
Lens f=+80mm,
h=+100mm,
L=-120mm (=-1.5f)

13
Raytracing
Example, 2/5
Ray #1: A ray
through the center of
the lens is
undeviated.

14
Raytracing
Example, 3/5
Ray #2: An incident
ray parallel to the
optic axis goes
through the back
focal point.

15
Raytracing
Example, 4/5
Ray #3: An incident
ray through the front
focal point emerges
parallel to the optic
axis.

16
Raytracing
Example, 5/5
Image Formation,

Magnification.

h’ = -200mm

M=-2

L’=+240mm (=+3f)

17
 1 - 1 = 1.
Lens equation L’ L f
● Important to maintain sign convention!
○ Distances are measured w.r.t. Lens vertex
○ Light always travels left to right
○ Distances to the left are negative, distance to the right are positive
○ Heights above the OA (Optical Axis) are positive
○ Variables with a prime (L’) are for image-space (right side of lens)
○ Note: some sources use 1/L’+1/L and don’t use negative distances. Be careful! This
formulation and sign convention is better (more rigorous, works for virtual images).
● Exercise: for the example on the previous few slides, what is the image
distance L’?
○ f=+80mm, L=-120mm.
○ You can leave distance in terms of “lens units”, i.e. L=-1.5f, and find L’ as a factor of “f”

L’ = 3f = 240mm
18
Lens equation & sign convention from Mouroulis & Macdonald, Geometrical Optics and Optical Design
Magnification M = h’/h

● A negative magnification means an

inverted image
● Exercise: use a simple ray trace and
some geometry to reformulate the
magnification in terms of object and
image distances L and L’

M = L’/L

19
Thus concludes your Geometrical Optics crash course!
● We only covered the very basics
○ Positive, thin lenses
○ Real images
○ graphical ray tracing (can barely be called quantitative, and is inadvisable for anything beyond
the most basic 1- or 2-element lens systems)
○ Lens equation
○ Magnification
● What was not covered
○ Virtual images
○ Negative lenses
○ Numerical ray tracing
○ “Thick” lenses, lensmaker’s equation
○ Everything else

20
Lecture 1 Technical Content
● 1: Basic Geometrical Optics
● 2: Using lenses for Focusing and Collimation
● 3: Focusing: the Diffraction limit
● 4: A brief view of Spatial Filtering
● 5: Very brief overview of Telescope and Microscope labs

21
 Lenses in Lab
Most of the lenses in lab are positive lenses.

Most of the lenses are achromatic cemented doublets.

Rule: Flat side of lens towards curved wavefront!

The rule of lens orientation still

Image 1 from: https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-Plano-convex-lens-and-biconvex-one
applies to cemented doublets! 22
Image 2,3 from: Wikipedia, “Achromatic Lens”, contributing user “DrBob”
Plano-Convex Lens Orientation (1/4)
Flat side of lens towards curved wavefront - why?

Here, the flat side of the lens is facing the flat wavefront — WRONG!

23
Plano-Convex Lens Orientation (2/4)
Flat side of lens towards curved wavefront - why?

Here, the curved side of the lens is facing the flat wavefront — YES!

24
 Plano-Convex Lens Orientation (3/4)

Using it the wrong way, you get large refraction angles at lens edge.

By splitting the refraction to be at 2 surfaces, you minimize the largest angles, and thus minimize wavefront errors
(especially spherical aberration). The result is a tighter focus with fewer aberrations.

Yes, but why? Because a spherical lens is not the ideal lens shape for best focusing, but it’s very close (especially on-axis).
25
OK, but then WHY do we use spherical lenses??
Plano-Convex Lens Orientation (4/4)
The previous 3 slides were showing how to focus a collimated beam.

See if you can use the simulator to investigate collimation rather than focusing!

(Same ideas apply, best choice is flat-wavefront-to-curved-lens-surface, but the

salient details are slightly different). Go play!

26
Lecture 1 Technical Content
● 1: Basic Geometrical Optics
● 2: Using lenses for Focusing and Collimation
● 3: Focusing: the Diffraction limit
● 4: A brief view of Spatial Filtering
● 5: Very brief overview of Telescope and Microscope labs

27
 Beam Focusing
● For a diffraction-limited beam (no aberrations), there is still a limit to the
tightest focus you can make.
● This is where ray optics breaks, and the wave nature of light is important.
● What does it depend on?
○ Wavelength
○ Imaging system parameters
■ cone angle of received beam, OR
■ the system F/# (pronounced “F number”), F/#= f/D
● Focal length,
● entrance pupil diameter

Image (left) from https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/imaging/lens-iris-aperture-setting/ 28

Image (right) from https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/imaging/limitations-on-resolution-and-contrast-the-airy-disk/
Beam Focusing: the PSF
● This is a fundamental parameter of an imaging system: The PSF (Point
Spread Function)
○ This is analogous to the impulse response
○ This is the image you see if your source is an infinitesimal point source
○ Your image is the object convolved with the PSF
● For an unaberrated system with a circular clear aperture, the pattern is a
Bessel Function (of the first kind), derived using Fraunhofer diffraction.
● In optics, we call this the Airy Disk Monochromatic, and with more rings:

29
Image from wikipedia, entry: “Airy Disk”, contributed by SiriusB (left) and Bautsch (right).
Resolution Limit
The resolution of your optical system is determined by the PSF.
The Rayleigh criterion declares the resolution limit to be when 2 point sources are
placed exactly 1 Airy Disk radius apart.
This isn’t the full story! Resolution involves many other factors (relative brightness,
SNR, sampling, temporal characteristics).

30
Image: my simulation
Lecture 1 Technical Content
● 1: Basic Geometrical Optics
● 2: Using lenses for Focusing and Collimation
● 3: Focusing: the Diffraction limit
● 4: A brief view of Spatial Filtering
● 5: Very brief overview of Telescope and Microscope labs

31
Spatial Filtering Lab
The basic idea of the lab is to set up a laser and prepare it for use in a general
experiment. This is often the first thing you do on your table for whatever
experiment you are running: set up and condition your light source.

You will also gain familiarity with basic lab skills and hardware.

32
 Spatial
Filtering Lab:
Ray View

33
Image from McLeod, notes
 Spatial
Filtering Lab:
Fourier
Optics View
● A lens can perform a Fourier
transform
● An aperture (pinhole) is akin to
a low-pass filter
● The 2nd lens performs the
inverse Fourier transform
● The resulting output beam is
“spatially filtered”: the noisy
high-frequency patterns are
gone, and we are left with a
nice, smooth, clean beam.
34
Image from McLeod, notes
Lecture 1 Technical Content
● 1: Basic Geometrical Optics
● 2: Using lenses for Focusing and Collimation
● 3: Focusing: the Diffraction limit
● 4: A brief view of Spatial Filtering
● 5: Very brief overview of Telescope and Microscope labs

35
Telescope lab preview
In this lab, you will build and align a telescope on the table using a lens,
“eyepiece”, and a camera.

36
Microscope lab preview
In this lab, you will build and align a microscope on the table using a lens,
“eyepiece”, and a camera.

37
Why you just choose 1?
● Both labs cover the same basic skills
○ Working with lenses on an optical table
○ Setting up and aligning a basic imaging system
○ Quantifying aspects of the imaging system, measuring figures of merit
○ Using a camera to get image data from your optical system
● Both labs are good!
○ Prof. Shaheen and I just have too much good stuff to pack into the semester!

38
End
39