Course Identification

Title:

Physics module: Introduction to modern optics

Code:

20186222

Lecturers and Teaching Assistants

Lecturers:

Prof. Dan Oron

TA's:

Dr. Dekel Raanan, Dr. Gur Lubin

Course Schedule and Location

Year:

2018

Semester:

Second Semester

When / Where:

Thursday, 09:00 - 11:00, Weissman, Seminar Rm B

Tutorials
Thursday, 13:00 - 14:00, Weissman, Seminar Rm B

First Lecture:

15/03/2018

Field of Study, Course Type and Credit Points

Science Teaching (non thesis MSc Track): Lecture; Obligatory; 3.00 points

Comments

N/A

Prerequisites

No

Restrictions

Participants:

20

Other:

For students in the Rothschild-Weizmann program only

Language of Instruction

Hebrew

Attendance and participation

Expected and Recommended

Grade Type

Numerical (out of 100)

Grade Breakdown (in %)

Assignments:

30%

Final:

70%

Evaluation Type

Examination

Scheduled date 1

Date / due date

10/07/2018

Location

Weissman, Seminar Rm A

Time

1000-1300

Remarks

N/A

Scheduled date 2

Date / due date

N/A

Location

N/A

Time

-

Remarks

N/A

Estimated Weekly Independent Workload (in hours)

2

Syllabus

History of optics: Optics is the ancient world, particle and wave descriptions of optics ; First experimental evidence of wave nature of light ; Maxwell’s equations and electromagnetic waves ; The birth of quantum mechanics ; Particle-wave duality for light ; the concept of “photons”
Color and color perception: Color as the frequency dependence of electromagnetic waves. White versus monochromatic light. The concept of a spectrum. Different types of light sources. Color perception and the CIE diagram. Monochrome versus RGB displays and cameras.
Geometrical Optics: Reflection and refraction. Snell’s law and the Fresnel principle. Simple optical elements: Mirrors, Prisms, spherical lenses, aspheres.
The wave equation. Transverse and longitudinal waves. Polarization of light. Brewster’s angle and its applications. Birefringence. Polarizers and waveplates. Liquid crystals as tunable birefringent elements. Applications of liquid crystals. Multilayer reflection and anti-reflection coatings. Simple experiments on light polarizations.
Dispersion of light: Prisms as dispersive elements. Gratings. Design of a spectrometer.
Imaging and the resolution limits of optical microscopy. The Abbe and Rayleigh resolution criteria. The difference between localization accuracy and resolution. The notion of superresolution microscopy.
The notion of coherence. Temporal coherence. Spatial coherence. Interferometry.
Optical fibers and optical waveguides. Mechanisms of light guiding in a medium and applications in imaging and endoscopy.
Light sources and light detection: lasers versus lamps ; types of lamps ; spectrum of emitted light from lamps; Basics of lasers. types of detectors. The CCD camera. The photomultiplier tube. Photodiodes. Bolometers.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:

Demonstrate understanding of basic wave and ray picture of optics and their relationships,
Demonstrate understanding of basic everyday optical phenomena,
Demonstrate understanding of principles behind important technologies as lasers and fiberoptics.

Reading List

Books:

Hecht (Optics)
Goodman (introduction to Fourier optics)

Website

N/A