Optics and Photonics

Dr. Kevin Hewitt

Office: Dunn 240, 494-2315
Lab: Dunn B31, 494-2679
[email protected]

Friday Sept. 6, 2002

 Course Information
Optics is light at work
Textbook: Optics (4th edition), Eugene Hecht, $152.39
Reference: Introduction to Optics, F. & L. Pedrotti,
Description: Two areas will be covered:
– Geometrical optics:  < dimension of aperture/object
– Wave (i.e. physical) optics:  > dimension of aperture/object
Selected topics:
– What are your areas of interest?
– Lasers, holography, fiber optic communication, functions of the
eye…
Pre-requisites: PHYC 2010/2510 and MATH 2002

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 Course Information
Grading:
– Problem sets 20%
– Midterm 20%
– Oral Presentation 20%
– Final exam 40%
Problem sets:
– 1 per week
– Hand-out/Hand-in every Wednesday (begin
Sept. 11)

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 Class Schedule
Week Dates Topic Key terms
1 Sept. 6 The Nature of light Wave-particle duality

2 Sept. 9-14 Geometrical optics Huygen’s and Fermat’s principles

Reflection, refraction, thin lens

3 Sept. 16-21 Matrix methods in paraxial System matrix elements, thick

optics lens, cardinal points, Ray transfer
matrix
4 Sept. 23-28 Optical instrumentation Stops, pupils, windows, prisms,
cameras, telescopes,
Optics of the eye Acuity, corrections
5 Sept. 30- Wave equations and Plane and EM waves, Doppler
Oct. 4 superposition effect
6 Oct. 7-12 Interference of light Young’s double slit, Dielectric
films, Newton’s rings

7 Oct. 14-19 Optical Interferometry Michelson, Fabry-Perot, Resolving

power, Free spectral range.

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 Class Schedule
Wee Dates Topic Key terms
k
8 Oct. 21 -26 Fraunhofer diffraction Single slits, multiple slits, rectangular
and circular apertures

9 Oct. 28- Gratings Grating equation, Free Spectral

Nov.1 Range, Dispersion, Resolution
10 Nov. 4 - 9 Polarization of light Fresnel equations, Jones vector,
birefringence, optical activity,
production
11 Nov. 11 - 16 Laser basics and Einstein’s theory, Laser Tweasers
applications
12 Nov. 18 - 23 Fiber optics & Fourier optics Bandwidth, attenuation, distortion,
optical data imaging and processing
13 Nov. 25 -30 Holography
Class Presentations
14 Dec. 2 Classes end
15 Dec. 4 - 14 Exam period 3 hour exam
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 Key Dates
Date Item
September 20 Last Day to Register
October 7 Last Day to Drop without a “w”
October 14 Thanksgiving Day
October 12 Midterm exam
November 11 Remembrance day
November 4 Last Day to drop with a “W”
Nov. 25-30 Oral Presentations
December 2 Classes end
December 4-14 Exam period

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Nature of Light (Hecht 3.6)
Optics

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 Nature of Light
Particle
– Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
– Optics
Wave
– Huygens (1629-1695)
– Treatise on Light (1678)
Wave-Particle Duality
– De Broglie (1924)

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 Young, Fraunhofer and Fresnel
(1800s)
Light as waves!
Interference
– Thomas Young’s (1773-1829) double slit experiment
– see http://members.tripod.com/~vsg/interf.htm

Diffraction
– Fraunhofer (far-field diffraction)
– Augustin Fresnel (1788-1827) (near-field diffraction &
polarization)
Electromagnetic waves
– Maxwell (1831-1879)

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Max Planck’s Blackbody Radiation
(1900)
Light as particles
Blackbody – absorbs all wavelengths and
conversely emits all wavelengths
The observed spectral distribution of
radiation from a perfect blackbody did not
fit classical theory (Rayleigh-Jeans law) 
ultraviolet catastrophe

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 8
1x10 M = T
T = 6000 K
7
8x10
Spectral Radiance Exitance

Rayleigh-Jeans law

7
6x10
(W/m - m)

T = 5000 K Cosmic black body background

2

7
4x10 radiation, T = 3K.

7
2x10
T = 3000 K
0
0 2
Wavelength (m)
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 Planck’s hypothesis (1900)
To explain this spectra, Planck assumed
light emitted/absorbed in discrete units of
energy (quanta),
E = n hf
Thus the light emitted by the blackbody is,

2hc 2
 1 
M ( )   hc 
5  kT 
e 1 
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 Photoelectric Effect (1905)
Light as particles
Einstein’s (1879-1955) explanation
– light as particles = photons

Light of frequency ƒ Kinetic energy = hƒ - Ф

Electrons

Material with work function Ф

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Luis de Broglie’s hypothesis (1924)
Wave and particle picture
Postulated that all particles have associated
with them a wavelength,
h

p
For any particle with rest mass mo, treated
relativistically,
2 2 2 2 4
E  p c  mo c
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 Photons and de Broglie
For photons mo = 0
E = pc
Since also E = hf

h h h c
   
p E hf f
c c
But the relation c = ƒ is just what we expect for
a harmonic wave
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 Wave-particle duality
All phenomena can be explained using
either the wave or particle picture
Usually, one or the other is most
convenient

In OPTICS we will use the wave picture

predominantly

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 Propagation of light: Huygens’
Principle (Hecht 4.4.2)
E.g. a point source (stone dropped in
water)
Light is emitted in all directions – series of
crests and troughs
Rays – lines
perpendicular to
wave fronts


Wave front - Surface of
constant phase
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 Terminology
Spherical waves – wave fronts are
spherical
Plane waves – wave fronts are planes
Rays – lines perpendicular to wave fronts
in the direction of propagation

x
Planes parallel to y-z plane
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 Huygen’s principle
Every point on a wave front is a source of
secondary wavelets.
i.e. particles in a medium excited by
electric field (E) re-radiate in all directions
i.e. in vacuum, E, B fields associated with
wave act as sources of additional fields

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Huygens’ wave front construction
Construct the
New wavefront wave front tangent
to the wavelets

r = c Δt ≈ λ

Given wave-front at t What about –r direction?

See Bruno Rossi Optics. Reading, Mass:
Allow wavelets to evolve Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1957, Ch. 1,2

for time Δt for mathematical explanation

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Plane wave propagation
New wave front is still
a plane as long as
dimensions of wave
front are >> λ
If not, edge effects
become important
Note: no such thing
as a perfect plane
wave, or collimated
beam

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