Why study optics?

This course will change the way you look at the world. Literally.

We’ll talk about things you see every day but generally don’t question.

Why do windows often act like mirrors?

What’s all this business about light slowing down and speeding up?

What’s the difference between light from a laser and a light bulb?

Why is the sky blue?

Why do rainbows occur?

Why is an oily film on a puddle so colorful?

Does light really always travel in a straight line?

Opal

Why study optics? Lasers and fiber optics will soon replace most wires.

Topics1. Introduction: why optics is cool; a short history of optics2. Waves: the wave equation and phase velocity 3. Maxwell’s equations, the wave equation, and plane waves4. Blackbody radiation5. The electromagnetic spectrum6. Lasers7. Absorption and the refractive index: theory8. Absorption consequences9. Refractive index consequences

10. Superposition: standing waves, beats, and group velocity11. Fresnel’s equations of reflection and refraction12. Polarization I: polarized light; birefringence; polarizers13. Polarization II: wave plates and unpolarized light14. Optical activity and Jones vectors and matrices15. Geometrical optics I: ray matrices and ray tracing16. Geometrical optics II: applications and aberrations17. Fourier series and the Fourier transform18. Fourier transform examples, theorems, concepts19. Convolution and correlation20. Interferometers21. Interference and coherence22. Light scattering; reflection; refraction; coherence; light bulbs23. Diffraction and the Fourier transform24. Diffraction gratings; lenses as Fourier transformers25. Nonlinear optics and holography

Other topics (if we have time):26. Small beams and short pulses 27. Ultrafast optics28. Ultrafast Optics Research Lab tour

Long live trees!This class is as paperless as humanly possible.

We’ll also use Canvas, where you can check your homework and quiz scores.

I’ll tell you news in class and put lectures, homework assignments, and practice tests on my web site:

www.frog.gatech.edu

This web site URL is on the syllabus. Please don’t forget it!

My Website: www.frog.gatech.edu

Please download and read

the lectures before

class, so you don’t

have to take as

many notes in class.

You’re only responsible for knowing what’s in my lectures, which are on my web site. They’re ideal for studying for the midterm and final.

Only those taking the graduate version of the course will need to know the content of slides with a graduation cap in the title.

How to View the Lectures: Download Them

They’re Microsoft Power Point files.

If you have Power Point, you’re set.

If not,

Just download the free Windows program, Power Point Viewer.

Or the free Open Office (Windows or Mac).

Power Point is also built into MS OneDrive, where the files reside. But this program doesn’t correctly display all the animations.

For a tablet (iPad or Android), download the free Power Point app, which allows you to play (online or offline!) Power Point lectures. Some characters don’t appear correctly, however.

Optics has some very unintuitive ideas: what you need to know.

To help, in my lectures, I’ve put equations that you need to remember in white boxes with color borders.

Other equations have no background and are less important.

Plain white boxes indicate that it’s an important equation, but you don’t need to remember it.

0( / 2 )n n i k n iα κ≡ + ≡ +

1 2( ) ( ) ( )x

P t p x p t x∞

=−∞

= −∑And this symbol will indicate stuff only grad students need to know.

( )v 1/ /g dk dω=

The Importance of Having ClassNow, I know you’ll be tempted to skip class and just download the lectures. This is fine if you only do it occasionally. But you should come to class because there’s a lot that I’ll say that won’t be in the Power Point files. And which will help greatly on the tests.

Also, new federal laws now require taking attendance occasionally during the term (for GT’s eligibility for Federal Title IV funds).

In the past, people who have skipped a lot of classes have received very bad grades. Conversely, people who’ve come to most or all of the classes nearly always receive A’s and B’s.

Understanding the ideas of each lecture requires the knowledge of the previous lectures.

If you keep up, you won’t end up

looking like this the night before the

tests.

Finally, to reiterate, this course is not

trivial!

We’re covering some of the more

unintuitive ideas in science!

How to Take This Course

Download the lecture the evening before class.

Read it before class.

Come to class.

Impress your classmates by knowing the answers to questions I might ask in class that are on the next slide.

Do the homework. Work with your friends and talk about the problems, so you really understand them.

Get an A.

Bedtime Reading

Course recommended texts

J.F. James, A Student's Guide to Fourier Transforms (~$40)

Eugene Hecht, Optics, 4th ed. (~$200)

There is no required text.

Alternative Bedtime Reading

Schaum’s Outline: Optics by Eugene Hecht (~$13)

Lots of sample problems and answers to them!

Other helpful books

Introduction to Modern Optics by G.R. Fowles (~$15)

Stuff You Should Absolutely Know Before You Take This Course

Complex numbers (critical!)

Trigonometry

Physics I and II

Calculus (integration and differentiation)

2 2

2 2 2

1 0v

f fx t

∂ ∂− =

∂ ∂

y (Imaginary)

x (Real)

P

y = A sin(ϕ)

x = A cos(ϕ)

ϕ

A

A tiny bit of differential equations (I’ll solve them for you, but you shouldn’t be afraid of them!); I can give you a quick tutorial on them if you like.

The first homework (#0) will be due this Friday, the fifth day of the semester.

Homework #0 will help you determine whether your mathematical background is sufficient for this course. It should be easy.

Our TA will be available Friday from 3 to 5pm to help and pick them up.

HW#0 is due the last day that you can withdraw from a course without a “W” on your record.

If it’s hard, this course will be very difficult for you, so please don’t take it; you’ll do very badly! You can take it next year, after taking Math 1113 (Pre-calculus), if necessary, and Calculus.

HomeworkExcept for HW #0, homework will be due on the date in the title of the HW file at the beginning of class, when the TA will collect it—not under my door. Or email the TA a digital copy. The last homework set will be due on the last day of class.

The TA will try to grade and return the homework within a few days and all homework by the class before any test (unless it was handed in late), and, if time permits, will go over the homework in class on the class day before the test.

Everyone will be allowed to turn in one assignment late (email our TA, who will keep track of this; please don’t email me about this).

You can work with your classmates on homework (I encourage you to do so!), but write it up yourself.

HW problems shouldn’t re-quire many pages each, soif you’re having trouble,talk to the TA or me.

Tests and Other Detestable StuffThere will be one midterm and a final exam, and both will be closed book. No notes, phones, or calculators will be allowed.

Grading: Midterm: 30%Homework: 30%Final: 40%

Midterm date:Nov. 7th Thursday

You won’t need to remember complex equations (just those inside the colored boxes in the lectures) or do complex computations.

Both tests will emphasize concepts, not math.

The professor said “notes that fit on one side of a piece of paper”.

Grading Cut-offs

I’ll decide this very late in the semester, after I’ve made up the final, so don’t ask until the last week!If you take the course S/U, the cut-off will be the center of the D range.Overall, this course is above average in difficulty, so, if you’re looking for an easy course, you’re in the wrong place!

The cut-offs between A and B, etc., will depend on how difficult the tests turn out to be and how generous the TA is. Typically 86/76/66/56. They’ll be higher for the graduate version of the course.

This course is not graded on a curve. Everyone can get an A.

No one’s perfect. So we give lots of partial credit.But you must say what you’re doing! Write a lot of text in addition to equations in your homework and tests.

We’ll use Canvas to record your grades and for TA messages to everyone.

I’ll show you many advanced ideas that I’m including for grad students and, for undergrads, just for interest.

Pump beam

Gain medium

Saturable absorber

Focusing mirrors

Output mirror

A laser that emits an ultrashort pulse of light.

Don’t be scared by these topics (which will be indicated by ). Only the grad students will have homework, test questions, and final exam problems on such concepts.But I’m hoping that they’ll inspire those of you who are undergrads.

Another Reason for the Advanced Ideas

Confucius: “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”

Socrates (who was clearly very wise): “I know that I know nothing.”

Bertrand Russell: “One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.”

Charles Darwin: “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”

The Dunning-Kruger Effect: The less someone knows about a subject, the more he thinks he knows. And people who know nothing usually think they know everything.

I would like you to also know what you don’t know about optics.

Looking to the Future…There is an Optics Lab course this spring.

Time

Elec

tric

field

A typical ultrashort laser pulse

I also teach first-year graduate optics courses that pick up where this course leaves off.

I occasionally teach Ultrafast Optics, Physics 6567.

If you do well in this course, you should be able to do well in these graduate courses also.

Also: Nonlinear Optics, Physics 8803RT/ECE 6522.