Optics Definition and 999 Threads

Hello there! I'm new on the forum and english is not my first language. I'm working on an art project and I wonder if there's any mean by which I can transport the light from an illuminated scene across a small tube (let say not larger than 5 cm in diameter) and over some distance (let say 2...

I'm reading Hecht's book on optics and am absolutely hating it. The derivations are not rigorous and have many, many holes. They use unnecessary presentations (no div-grad-curl presentation of M's equations and instead writing out each of the 100 derivatives involved explicitly). Horrible book...

This is a simple and fun experiment in optics for high school and intro college. Might even be a good incentive to get student to learn how to use a micrometer.

Homework Statement An unpolarised light beam is shone horizontally through a cubic tank filled with weakly scattering fluid. Can vertically polarized light leave through the sides that are parallel to the beam’s propagation direction? Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution My thinking is...

I am simulating a radio telescope and confused on what kind of source should I setup to simulate a star. Should it be a TEM00 gaussian beam or simply a plane wave?Cheers, Robin

An object is within a glass sphere of radius R with a refractive index of 1.5 . I'm trying to calculate the displacement of the virtual object relative to the actual when viewed from the side, such that the refracted ray emanating from the object becomes horizontal. I would like to know S (the...

I am reading the book "A History Of Optics" by Oliver Darrigol, and I came across this sentence (under the heading Visual Fire): Isn't this a low-quality argument? This can be directly disproved by the fact that humans inbabilty to see in dark, viz. if humans can see things from the "fire"...

Hello everyone, i am simulating a Michelson interferometer, where one mirror is slightly tilted, see picture.. This results in circular arcs / hyperbolic cross-section fringes. The center of these fringes depends on the focal length i am using, see picture. Is there an analytical expression for...

interference is a superposition of two waves coming two slits... diffraction is a superposition of a family of waves from a single slit.. then how the fringes formed during double slit experiment is actually a superposition of single-slit diffraction from each slit and the double-slit...

Took this image of the moon a couple of days ago. It shows the 22° halo and if you squint and imagine, part of the paraselenic circle. for more info: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/common.htm

Homework Statement [/B] The textbook is talking about pulse spreading/dispersion in optical fibres. Book says: "The spreading of the pulse is due to two dispersion effects: (i) Chromatic dispersion occurs because the refractive index of the fibre is different for different frequencies...

I want to know the relationship between the optical axis direction of a crystal and the dielectric constants in different directions in an anisotropic material.

I'm halfway through my junior year and I'm hoping to do Quantum Optics or Particle Physics in graduate school (I'm doing the recommended courses for both since I'm still undecided). Besides the math required from the physics major (ie. Calculus, linear algebra, ODEs, PDEs, complex analysis)...

Hey everyone! I was wondering what the job prospects in academia and outside academia were like for people who have a physics Ph.D's specializing in optics? Were there a good number of STEM related choices or was it just as difficult as any other speciality? Thanks!

Hi, Concerning optical polarization, what is the Jones Matrix of a mirror at a non-zero angle of incidence with respect to incoming light? For a mirror at normal incidence the matrix is (1 0; 0 -1); How do I incorporate the angle?

Using a high-power LED light (the surface mount kind, about 4x4mm with 120 degree viewing angle) I'd like to project shadows of a fine metal mesh onto a wall. I have tried various lens arrangements and found that placing a pinhole in front of the LED makes the sharpest shadows. This makes...

I am currently studying optical microscope and discover that the axial resolution is limited as r(z) = 2pi / (NA)^2. However, while I got hints that it is due to the Rayleigh's limit, I can't derivative the equation using numerical method. It would be huge thanks if anyone can help me on the...

Homework Statement A beam of wavelength 600 nm has initially an intensity profile of Gaussian shape with a fwhm of 1 mm. Determine the intensity profile and fwhm 10 meter away.Homework Equations FWHM = λ/(2NA√(1 + I/Is)) The Attempt at a Solution [/B] FWHM1 = 1mm = 600 nm/(2NA√(1 + I/Is))...

Homework Statement We look at the center of one face of a solid cube of glass on a line of sight making 55° with the normal to the cube face. What is the minimum refractive index of glass for which you will see through the opposite face of the cube? (Hint: see through will be possible if the...

Homework Statement You are designing a thin transparent reflective coating for the front surface of a sheet of glass. The index of refraction of the glass is 1.52 and when it is in use, the coated glass has air on both sides. Because the coating is expensive, you want to use a layer that has...

Hello everyone. I have been practicing for my exam in fiber optics, and stumbled upon the following question: We have a transmission system with 3 channels, composed of a single mode fiber and a dispersion compensation fiber. Specifications are given for each. We need to calculate the channel's...

Hi, it is known that second order correlation function (g2) is a constant( =1) for ideal laser or single frequency light sources. So, what is the second order correlation function for non ideal laser? Is it still a constant or something related to the coherence time of the laser?

There is a recent article (Optics July 2015) claiming violation of Bell inequalities for classical fields: "Shifting the quantum-classical boundary: theory and experiment for statistically classical optical fields" https://www.osapublishing.org/optica/abstract.cfm?URI=optica-2-7-611...

Hey there, What would happen if I had a half-wave plate, and I rotated it at like 1 Hz? If I stick a linear polarizer on the other end, what would my outcoming beam look like if the incoming one was natural light?

Hello. I am not related to physics or any optics related field. I am in need of equation for +20d aspherical lens of diameter 55mm. Can anybody help me?

what does it mean by localisation of fringes?

What would be the position an image formed by a Lens or a mirror if the object is not kept on the principal axis?

Hi I want to calculate the necessary incident polarization of a light beam at a given angle of incidence (theta_i) that reflects off BK7 glass (n = 1.5168) and is linearly polarized (i.e., 45 degrees). I know how to do similar calculations for incident natural unpolarized light, but not in the...

Hi according to Huygens principle every point on the wave front acts as a spherical source. so if a we emit monochromatic light on a screen without passing light from grating, we should see interference pattern but we don't. why don't these spherical waves interfere with each other? is this...

" Thus according to Maxwell, light waves are associated with changing electric and magnetic fields; changing electric field produces a time and space varying magnetic field and a changing magnetic field produces a time and space varying electric field. The changing electric and magnetic fields...

I'm a high school senior taking classes at Ohio State University. I'm currently enrolled in Basic Astrophysics and Planetary Astronomy, and have already decided to take Stellar, Galactic, & Extragalactic Astronomy & Astrophysics (wow that is LONG!) next semester. I've been looking at other...

In most (perhaps all) books it was mentioned that intersection of the light from the object when reflected by the mirror or refracted by a lens intersect at a particular point. That point when traced till the principal axis gives the image. (Provided object lies on the axis). I do not understand...

Homework Statement In a youtube video() it is explained how gaussian beams propagate through an optical lens. Using the complex parameter q \frac{1}{q} = \frac{1}{R} - \frac{j\lambda}{\pi n w^2} (with R the radius of curvature), one can use the ABCD matrix to calculate the effect of an optical...

Homework Statement A thin lens is placed 2m after the beam waist. The lens has f = 200mm. Find the appropriate system matrix. This is a past exam question I want to check I got right. Homework Equations For some straight section [[1 , d],[0 , 1]] and for a thin lens [[1 , 0],[-1/f , 1]]...

Consider an interface along x-axis which separates two media. The medium below y = 0 is air or vacuum and light is incident from this medium onto the surface. The refractive index of the medium above y = 0 varies with x as some function of x : μ = f(x). Does the Snell's law still hold good ?? If...

Hi, I studied 'A' level physics back in the '80s, my dad was a physics teacher, and I have an ongoing interest in the subject. I'm particularly interested in optics. The main thing that I remember being taught incorrectly at school is that white light is a combination of red, green, and blue...

Mirage: we consider the x-y plane describing vertical y and horizontal x directions, with an inhomogeneous index of refraction n(y). In this case, using calculus of variations, Fermat’s principle for the trajectory of a ray of light may be re-written as n(y)/√1+(dy/dx)^2 = A. Where A is a real...

Light reflecting off a mirror actually penetrates a short distance into the mirror surface material. In metals, this distance is very short (much less than a wavelength) and so can be neglected. But metals tend to also absorb ~10% of the light, which is undesirable. Today’s modern multilayer...

Before life got in the way I used to follow this field as a science fan up until the early 90's. Any good review articles for a general readership that can fill the gap in from early 90's till now. I would like to see how a lot of that research progressed and if any applications / devices came...

Homework Statement A ray travels as shown in the image attached below. In this case, Fermat's principle may be written as ##A =\frac{n(1+ay)}{\sqrt{1+(y')^2}}## Where y' is dy/dx, n is the index of refraction and A is a real constant. The trajectory of a ray of light is given by ##y =...

Hello everyone, I am brand new here in the PhysicsForum and this is my very first message. So it's apleasure to meet likeminded people sharing the same interest and probably also profession. The latter is also the reason why I finally registered in this forum and I sincerely hopethat I am given...

When will you consider that the numerical aperture is high? I was told that the numerical Angular Spectrum Method is only valid low numerical aperture values, I want to know the boundary of this value. Thank you in advance.

To give a little idea for what I'm aiming for: I want to make a prop laser gun. It doesn't have to actually do anything, but I've decided it'd be awesome if it did. I could use a 2-5W blue laser diode like some people who make awesome contraptions with lasers show on YouTube, but I'd frankly...

Homework Statement I have a compound thick lens problem that I need to find the sign of the refractive power. Homework Equations Thick lens equation and focal length equation. The Attempt at a Solution I believe all I need to do is calculate the focal length of the first two thick lenses and...

How can I compute the intensity of an electromagnetic radiation if I know ##e_x, e_y, e_z, h_x, h_y,## and ##h_z##, where ##e_i## is the electric field component at ##i## and ##h_i## is the magnetic field component, also at ##i##? Thank you in advance.

Alright I was browsing through feynman's lectures VOL.1 When I came across Hamiltonian Optics I am not quite able to understand it in its entirety Could someone explain the basics of hamiltonian optics to me Help would be much appreciated !

Alright I was doing some basic questions on ray optics when this doubt came to my mind So my doubt goes like this:(IT may be silly) Consider a concave mirror with pole P and centre of curvature C Its principal axis is extended on both sides Now consider a ray parallel to the principal axis Call...

How do you use Fermat's principle of least time to explain various concepts in geometrical optics?

I am working in a project that contain several switchboards that will receive an optical fiber from encoders of the motors that they feed (through an optical transmitter). It appears that to do this we will need Mini-DIOs to connect this fiber cord to optical receivers, which in turn will be...

Do you guys know a low-cost low-threshold optical beam limiter, with cost somewhere ~$100. Or if you know certain method to fabricate such. I would be greatful if you could include links and/or references. I am still noob in photonics so I am only familiar with a beam limiter that blocks the...