Optics and Photonics

Physics in 13 chapters — from “Image formation by mirrors and lenses” to “The photon”.

Chapters

  1. Image formation by mirrors and lenses
    • Rays and Fermat's principle
    • The paraxial approximation
    • Refraction at a spherical surface
    • Spherical mirror imaging
    • The thin lens equation
    • Transverse magnification and ray diagrams
    • The ray transfer matrix
    • Thick lens and cardinal points
    • Problems
  2. Stops, pupils and optical instruments
    • The aperture stop
    • Entrance and exit pupils
    • Field stop, f-number and numerical aperture
    • The eye and accommodation
    • Angular magnification and the simple magnifier
    • The compound microscope
    • The astronomical telescope
    • Camera and depth of field
    • Problems
  3. Radiometry and photometry
    • Solid angle, flux and radiant intensity
    • Irradiance and the inverse square law
    • Radiance
    • Lambertian sources and radiant exitance
    • Etendue and the conservation of radiance
    • Irradiance at an image
    • Spectral quantities and photometric units
    • Problems
  4. Harmonic waves, phasors and group velocity
    • The harmonic wave and its phase
    • Complex representation of a wave
    • Phasor addition and two-beam irradiance
    • Beats and group velocity
    • Problems
  5. Light as an electromagnetic wave in matter
    • The plane electromagnetic wave
    • Refractive index as wave speed
    • Induced polarisation of a medium
    • The Lorentz oscillator model
    • Dispersion, normal and anomalous
    • Complex refractive index and absorption
    • Rayleigh scattering and the blue sky
    • Problems
  6. Reflection and transmission at interfaces
    • Phase matching at a boundary
    • The s and p polarisations
    • Electromagnetic boundary conditions
    • The Fresnel equations
    • Reflectance and transmittance
    • Brewster's angle and road glare
    • Phase change on reflection
    • The evanescent wave beyond the critical angle
    • Problems
  7. Optical fibres in communication and endoscopy
    • The step-index fibre and cladding
    • Acceptance angle and numerical aperture
    • Modal dispersion
    • Material dispersion
    • The single-mode fibre
    • Fibre attenuation in decibels
    • Pulse broadening and bit rate
    • The ordered fibre bundle and the endoscope
    • Problems
  8. Polarisation states, polarisers and the Jones and Stokes calculus
    • Transverse polarisation states
    • The linear polariser and Malus law
    • Unpolarised and partially polarised light
    • Jones vectors
    • The Jones matrix
    • Stokes parameters
    • The Mueller matrix
    • Polarisation by reflection and scattering
    • Problems
  9. Birefringence and crystal optics
    • Optical anisotropy and the optic axis
    • Ordinary and extraordinary waves
    • Polarising prisms
    • Wave plate retarders
    • Half-wave and quarter-wave plates
    • Compensators
    • Optical activity
    • Photoelasticity
    • Problems
  10. Two-beam interference and interferometry
    • Coherence and coherence length
    • Young's double slit
    • Division-of-wavefront interferometers
    • The Michelson interferometer
    • Mach-Zehnder and Sagnac interferometers
    • Interferometric metrology
    • The Fresnel-Arago laws
    • Problems
  11. Multiple-beam interference: thin films, multilayers and the Fabry-Perot etalon
    • Thin-film interference
    • Newton's rings and fringes of equal thickness
    • The antireflection coating
    • The quarter-wave stack high reflector
    • The Airy function
    • The Fabry-Perot etalon
    • Problems
  12. Fraunhofer diffraction from apertures and gratings
    • Wavelets and the Fraunhofer condition
    • Single-slit diffraction
    • The double slit with finite slits
    • The circular aperture Airy pattern
    • The Rayleigh criterion and resolution
    • The diffraction grating, N slits
    • Grating spectroscopy, dispersion and resolving power
    • Babinet's principle
    • Problems
  13. The photon
    • Thermal radiation and the blackbody
    • The Stefan-Boltzmann and Wien laws
    • Planck's law and energy quantisation
    • Photoelectric measurement of h
    • The photon as energy quantum
    • Photon flux and photon irradiance
    • Photon counting noise
    • Single-photon interference
    • Problems