Waves and Optics
Instructor: Dr. [Sabieh Anwar] Office hours: Monday, 2-6 pm
Teaching Fellow: [Kaneez Amna] Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 10 am - 2 pm
Lecture 1 (26 August 2009)
- Three dimensional wave equation
- Harmonic waves: plane and spherical
- Deriving the wave equation for the electric field from Maxwell's Equations
- Electric and and magnetic fields at the interface of two materials (applying boundary conditions to Maxwell's Equations)
- Deriving laws of reflection and refraction using Maxwell's Equations
- S and P- polarizations
- Introduction to Fresnel coefficients for reflection and transmission
Lecture 2 (2 September 2009)
- Interpretations of the Fresnel Equations
- Brewster angle
- Total internal reflection
- Plotting of Fresnel coefficients with respect to incidence angle
- Phase change upon reflection and transmission
- reflectivity and Transmissivity
Homework No. 1 Fresnel's Equations; Reflection and Refraction The HW is due 14 September, 2 pm.
Homework No. 1 Solution.
Lecture 3 (9 September 2009)
- Evanescent wave
- Polarization of a dielectric sphere
- Polarizability of an atom
- Clausius-Mossotti Equation
Lecture 4 (16 September 2009)
- Lorentz's oscillator model
- Refractive index can be complex
- Extinction coefficient, resonant and non-resonant absorption
- refractive index of non-absorbing gases
- Dispersion
Lecture 5 (30 September 2009)
- Drude's model of conductivity
- Dispersion relationships for free charge carriers
- Reflectivity of perfect conductors
- Plasma frequency and introduction to plasma oscillations
Homework No. 2 Absorption, Refractive index and Dispersion The HW is due 20 October, 2 pm.
Homework No. 2 Solution.
Midterm Examination Question paper.
Midterm Examination Solution.
Homework No. 3 Interference, Fourier Theory and Propagation of Light The HW is due 4 December, 2pm.
Homework No. 3 Solution.
Final Examination Question paper.
Final Examination Solution.
Post-mid-term contents
- Interference basics, path difference, optical path difference, phase difference
- Fourier transformation and basic ideas of convolution, relationship between time and frequency, space and k-space domains
- group and phase velocity, derivation of relationships between phase and group velocities, impossibility of superluminal communication, significance of group velocity
- multiple beam interference as an example of interference by amplitude splitting, fringes produced by multiple reflections from thin films
- Fabry-Perot interferometry: Airy's function, coefficient of finesse, orders, finesse, free spectral range, resolution and resolving power, modes of operation (especially scanning distance)
- Michelson interferometry: mechanism of producing circular fringes, equivalent optical diagram, finding the refractive index of gases
- Temporal interference: coherence time, coherence length, linewidth, correlation function, autocorrelation, visibility of fringes