Optics Definition and 999 Threads

I am an undergraduate Physics major in my third year, and I'd like to concentrate in Astronomy or Astrophysics when I obtain my Masters and PhD. What kinds of physics classes should I take in preparation for this? I've already taken all explicitly-astronomy courses at my school. I was thinking...

I am studying Photonics and currently I am on my third semester of undergraduate studies. I am interested in ultrafast optics and mostly in attosecond optics to study electron's in atoms and other fundamental quantum mechanical phenomena. As my course is more engineering oriented than I would...

Does anybody know what is this device name and its application: (It's in our optics laboratory)

Homework Statement ZnSe is a II-VI semiconductor and a very useful optical material used in various applications such as optical windows (especially high power laser windows), lenses, and prisms. It transmits over 0.50-19 μm. Refractive index, n in the 1-11 μm range is described by a Cauchy...

In the morning I wake up and there is a amazing light effect that is caused by the sunlight and the chandelier in my living room. However when I use a flashlight to try to duplicate this process I am left with a pathetic duplication. The colors and size in my duplication are non vibrant and...

I will be graduating with a BA in physics and BS in Electrical Engineering in May. I want an optics PhD. I attended an info session on Sandia National Labs at my university, and the recruiters made me think about a PhD program through a national lab. If someone has experience with the National...

Homework Statement A concave mirror forms an image on a screen twice as large as an object. Both object and mirror are then moved such that the new image is 3x the size of the object. If the screen is moved 75cm, how far did the object move? Homework Equations m = image distance / object...

When you collimate a point source using an off-axis parabolic mirror (OAP) with a circular shape, the beam area of the collimated light becomes more and more elliptical (x-dir. is smaller than y-dir.) as the off-axis angle is increased. Is there a reason why this happens? And is there a way to...

This is an original research project. Any ideas or guidance in the overlap of the two fields (i don't know much about the overlap).

I'm searching for a week from now and can't find out difference between optical and geometrical length in optical path. Can anyone explain or give me idea or how can I find it out?

Homework Statement https://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=768lpb97vo87e#4636076903 The picture displayed shows three graphs and in each problem the objective is to find the phase constant. I'm having an issue attempting any form of strategy to solve these problems. Any help would be...

Hello colleagues So I've been trying to make head and tail of a paper concerning coherence holography. As I see it, it involves a sound understanding of the Van Cittrt Zernicke theorem I have linked the paper below, and I was wondering if someone could explain the physics going on behind and...

I'm a beginner in quantum optics. I always become confusing when the material's refractive index is complex. This time is about the photonic density of states. We know that if the material is not absorbing or dissipative, meaning the refractive index is a real number, the local photonic density...

I am interested in ultrafast optical spectroscopy of solid state materials. The unique measurements and especially the process of developing new measurement tools for the optical measurement of quantities that are hard to measure in other ways, and the learning of transferrable skills, make this...

Homework Statement There is a small shiny object in a big aquarium, which is formed like a cuboid and filled with water. The plan site of a plano-convex lens with a focal length f is put on the wall of the aquarium from outside. The object is located on the optical axis of the lens. The...

Homework Statement My personal question: What does a Michelson interferometer tell us? The actual problem: A Michelson interferometer is used to precisely measure distances of the order of 1 mm using a laser of wavelength 632.8 nm. a) If the motion of one mirror is 1 mm, what is the...

Homework Statement An optical telescope with a 12mm eyepiece makes the Moon appear to have an angular diameter of 30 degrees. What is the focal length of the telescope's objective? Homework Equations magnification=focal length of objective/focal length of eyepiece The Attempt at a...

Hey all, I'm having some unique challenges on an optical system I've created, where I'm arraying several LEDs under 1 optic/reflector. We're beginning to see major degradation of the metallic coating that is applied to the part, and I'm tyring to quanitfy the temperature (converted from radiant...

I am a bit confused about optical pumping-style experiments, and why increasing the strength of the magnetic field increases the amount of optical pumping --> increases the transmission of light through rubidium So basically we have Rubidium with energy levels like this...

It is very well known that the sky scattering of visible light decrease with the wavelength, it is bigger in the blue portion of the spectrum( the reason why the sky is blue ) and is lower on the red portion of the spectrum, this scattering is even lower on the infrared section and lower still...

Hi all, I am wondering in the 3D optical transfer function as shown below: http://www.purplebark.net/mra/research/votf/otf-sliced-volume.png The m and n axes represent support of lateral spatial frequencies and the s axes axial. If we were talking about a microscope then it has what's called...

Diverging lens has focal length 6mm and image magnification 0.5. What is the distance between object and lens? I used the fact that distance image to lens/distance object to lens = 0.5 and the lens maker formula with f=-6 and combined the two formula but this gives distance = 18mm, when answer...

A window of a submarine is 30 cm thick, and is underwater. The index of refraction of the window is 1.65. The index of refraction fo th eocean is 1.35. The index of refraction inside the submarine is 1.00. A scuba diver is 1 meter away from thw window. Where does his image form?I used n1/d_o...

Hi I have been trying to work these out over the last few days and can get part way through but not get to the final answer. So some help would be appreciated http://www.thephysicsforum.com/images/smilies/smile.png 1. An unpolarised light beam of 2mm diameter carrying 4mW of power passes...

I'm a EE major with a senior design project/thesis on developing FPGA based counting module for Photon Coincidence and Correlation Experiments. It's an interesting mix of Electronics, Digital System Design and Experimental Quantum Optics. I've had a course in QM, and done research internships in...

Can somebody please explain how electron impact can cause optically forbidden transitions in atoms and molecules ?

Hi, I am a final year undergraduate student having to do a presentation for a course in 'Advanced Quantum Mechanics.' Our lecturer offered the following topics. I have to pick one of these. 1. Born-Oppenheimer Approximation → Berry Phase 2. Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics 3. Path...

So, I was reading about the exchange interaction, and trying to work out what it referred to, and came across something strange in the treatment of the hydrogen molecule (I think it was on wikipedia): The hamiltonian given for the system included a term e2/(4πε0 * Rab) for the repulsion between...

Homework Statement I am working on a lab report for a Microwave Optics lab in a Modern Physics class. There is a part in it where I am supposed to derive P_{avg} \propto 1 + cos(δ) . Here is the problem: The electric field of the signal reflected off the fixed mirror can be written as E_1 =...

I'm confused about optical low pass filters (found on CCD imaging devices). As I understand it is a double layer of birefringent material which in effect splits light into 4: (2*25%) green, 25% red, and 25% blue (for a standard bayer matrix). The part I'm not sure about is if all 4 fall on the...

Hi there, I have been researching an optical Ring Resonator and have been given the following values: FSR=100GHz, Q=10000, Wavelength (λ)=1.55um (micro), ng=3.7 and neff=2.3. Using these values I was asked to calculate the k value (coupling coefficient), length of ring, length of the...

Application: to measure the thermal strain of optical lens. Due to temperature variation the lens surface is expanding / contracting in radial direction with two extreme operating temperature. (-40C to +70C ) Optical lens is SF56A (CTE - 7.9*e-6 per Kelvin) What to do: I need to measure...

Given a racemic mixture with both isomers being optically active, why is it that light can still pass through? If I am not mistaken (this may be completely wrong): the two isomers of a compound, when optically active, polarize light in a plane perpendicular the other. (If this is wrong, please...

I'm looking for a "simple" calculator, most likely a matrix based thing, to allow me to work out the size of an image projected on the retina by an object of a given size some distance from the retina. being the eye, the thin film approximation is no good (i.e. if I have an object 3cm from the...

New to the forum but stumbled upon this and thought it might be beneficial to query more scientifically minded individuals. I am a filmmaker and use a variety of lenses to acquire certain looks. One of which is anamorphic cinematography. (http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/anamorphic-lenses)...

Hello everyone! I recently bought a small raspberryPi board, with its small "camera board". (link for camera reference) I want to use a CS lens on this camera (CS lens from the security camera industry). I have been able to attach the lens, and it focuses very good, yet not "excellent"...

Can anyone help me set this problem up? I am trying to figure out how to Prove the Sander's Parallelogram. See it here: http://www.tigel.nl/fun/files/opticals/Ill...ith_line-25.htm basically it is proving that the bisectors are of equal length The question is: what would be needed...

Good day, I'm starting my master in physics, and it's time for me to choose my courses. I've decided that I probably want to pursue the direction of quantum information processing, and I'm trying to pick my courses with that in mind. For my first semester I'll be taking four courses: Quantum...

Can anyone tell me how to convert electrical lan signals into optical signals for wireless transmission via LEDs like they use it Li-Fi systems.

I am self-studying Physics in the second year of my undergrad(too late i know) as I never really understood many basic concepts in my high school as clearly as i now do. In my enthusiasm to teach myself Physics I bought a number of books but none seem on par with stuff described on many forums...

Good Morning I loved the idea of four wave mixing in an optical fiber and how by satisfying phase matching condition you get a broad bandwidth but I want to know why am I interested in a large bandwidth why do I want to think about even enlarge it more? Thank you

Homework Statement i can't understand why the optical path diffrence is 2nt+0.5λ. why is it so? the 0.5λ is due to the path difference change of 180 degree of when it is reflected lower ray when it is reflected from the lower glass surface... why there's also phase change of 2nt. since both...

Hello everyone, I'm new here and new to Matlab. I hope I do place the post in the right place. First of all, thanks for viewing my post. Please bear with my English. I tried my best to explain everything clear. If you have any question about anything I wrote or spot any fault, please tell...

I'm looking to reduce the amount of books I have, but I'd like to get a few references references books to replace them. I'd like a set of books that encompasses everything from mechanics, nuclear, optics, and solid state, to ,basic lab electronics, astronomy, quantum, and their mathematical...

Hi, I will go back to school next year to start studying physics. For the moment, I am learning/reviewing maths with Khan Academy and the book of Mary Boas. Once I am good with the maths, I will start to review/learn physics (Khan Academy, Fundamental of Physics by Halliday and Resnick...

So, a while back i read about this idea, but i can't find it anymore, so i was wondering if anybody else knows about it. here it is: We know that if a vector field is conservative, then there exists some surface whos level curves are perpendicular to the vector field. or inversely, that the...

Homework Statement If you have a spherical interface between two different "media" (like air and water), and an object is placed in the one with the lower index of refraction, with the interface being convex toward the object, how can you tell if the image will be real or virtual? Here's a...

I've attached a screenshot of the question, and I have to admit I'm really struggling. I don't know if anyone will be able to help as optics is very diagram-dependent, but perhaps you can give me a hint without needing to draw anything. I'm stuck on (ii) a) The first thing I did was use...

Hello! 1. The problem statement and all variables AIM: Calculating persistence length P of a single dsDNA molecule from a data set of force F (to the molecule) vs. extension x measurements. Experimental background: pN forces were applied to a single dsDNA molecule spanned between two...

Could anyone please explain or advice me where to read about principles of Schlieren image formation NOT in terms of ray optics, but in terms of wave or Fourier optics. I understand how that works in terms of heuristic ray optics, but would like to get to know how the actual image formation...