Physics 428 - Applied Optics - Fall 2005 (instructor - Dr. Brian Davies)
Online resources
The following are links to online (web-based) simulations and animations to complement the textbook, Optics, 4th ed., by Eugene Hecht. These have been chosen to illustrate the basic physics of the material in Hecht's book. Where I think a topic should have some simulation, I have indicated the topic without a link, and am searching for a suitable animation. Volunteers are welcome to suggest (or write!) a suitable simulation for these topics. I have not attempted to link to the large amount of historical and applications-oriented material on the web. Several instructors at other universities have long lists of links to interesting sites, which are listed in a section at the end of this page.
Chapter Chapter Title
1. A Brief History.
2. Wave Motion.
Relation between circular motion and wave motion
Simulations of traveling waves and reflections from fixed and free boundaries
(animated gif, not an applet)
Simulation of waves on a string, consisting of springs and masses (use cursor to shake the left end)
3. Electromagnetic Theory, Photons, and Light.
Phase of harmonic waves and complex representation.
Plane waves and meaning of k (dot) r term in wave equation.
Spherical waves and cylindrical waves.
Faraday's Law of Induction
Gauss's Law
Ampere's Circuital Law
Transverse EM Waves
Plane-polarized EM wave,
showing E and B fields
Poynting Vector and Irradiance
Photon Counting, granularity in image formation
Radiation from
an accelerated charge (linear, oscillating, synchrotron-circular, or
wiggler-sinusoidal motion)
Field of a moving point charge (even more options, different user interface)
Synchrotron radiation pattern, relativistic "searchlight"
Electric dipole radiation
Radiation from a vertical half-dipole and AM radio stations
EM waves of various
types
QuickTime Movies of EM
Waves (from Iowa State Univ.)
4. The Propagation of Light.
Rayleigh scattering
Forward scattering and propagation from Huygen's principle
Origin of the index of refraction
Reflection and the law of reflection
Ray picture of reflection
Reflection
and refraction - simulation and multipart tutorial (Huygen's principle)
Reflection and refraction showing wavelets from Huygen's principle
Fermat principle
for reflection and refraction
Fermat's principle in modern terms: stationary paths (EF Taylor?)
EM waves at interface, boundary conditions
Fresnel equations, transmittance, and reflectance -
intensity of
transmitted and reflected light beams
Total Internal Reflection
Reflection and
refraction from underwater (flashlight model)
Internal
reflection of beams at various angles, with intensity simulation
World above water
surface, as viewed by a fish !
Refraction at a planar surface -
world as
viewed by fish or fisherman
Evanescent waves
Dispersion equation derived from driven, damped oscillator model
Mixing colors
(RGB scheme)
Feynman's approach (wish list: rewrite E. F. Taylor's simulations in Java)
5. Geometrical Optics.
Aspherical surfaces
Refraction at spherical surfaces
Thin lens -
locating
images by ray tracing (displays distances, focal length, and magnification)
(broken link?)
Virtual Optics Bench (use a single lens) (alternate
web site, with short instructions)
Diverging Lens (short exercise)
Lens within and without a dielectric of higher index.
Longitudinal magnification of finite object (or see
Thin lens
combinations)
Combinations of lenses - see the
Virtual Optics Bench
Thin lens
combinations, including longitudinal magnification, telescope, and
microscope
Apertures, field stops, entrance and exit pupils
f-number and camera lenses
Plane mirrors and inversions -
two mirrors at
90 degree angular separation
Aspherical mirrors - elementary simulation of parabolic mirror
Spherical mirrors -
locating
images by ray tracing (displays distances, focal length, and magnification)
(broken link?)
Spherical mirrors - also see the
Virtual Optics Bench
Spherical mirrors -
toy in Physics
office with real image of coins (is this simulation correct?)
Dispersing Prisms (minimum deviation simulation, or try the following simulation)
Prism - reflection
and refraction (no dispersion)
Pentaprism
Rainbows
Fiber optics - propagation of light
Fiber optics - numerical aperture
Fiber optics - stepped vs. graded index
Fiber optics - modal dispersion
simulated with propagating beams
Capillary optics
Eyes
The Human Eye
Defects in eyes and corrective lenses
Magnifying glasses and eyepieces
Microscope, Camera, Telescopes
Adaptive optics and phase conjugation
Gravitational lensing
6. More on Geometrical Optics.
Demonstration of a thick lens (using matrix transformations,
with no spherical aberration.)
Adjustable
thick lens simulation with ray tracing
Ray tracing
Matrix methods
Aberrations
Spherical Aberration (demonstration of spherical aberration that occurs
with a real mirror)
GRIN lenses (see this PDF document about
Gradium(R) lenses
on the LightPath Technologies website)
7. The Superposition of Waves.
Addition of waves of same frequency
Standing waves
(see the third animated gif in this page, also see the fourth one for beats)
Beats
- shows two traveling waves of different frequency and the resulting beats
Group velocity
For a demonstration of dispersion in water waves, use the group velocity
simulation, and set the group velocity at 0.5.
Fourier synthesis
(alternate link)
Fourier series demonstration, with
variable number of terms and better sound
Fourier integrals and transforms, see this
description from a
review of Fourier methods (Ulm, Germany)
Fourier transform of a Gaussian and a Step Function (choose DemoFFT1 and
then DemoFFT2 from the menu on the left)
Pulses and
wavepackets
(choose Free Particle 2 from the menu on the left and stop when it hits the
right barrier)
Wave Packet
Simulator (not working on my PC?)
8. Polarization.
Polarization Exploration (including linear, circular, and elliptical)
Circular polarization demo from James Wyant's web site
Another polarization
simulator with arbitrary elliptical polarization (click on the Polarization
button)
Polarization of a plane EM wave - showing components and E field vector
Three stacked polarizers (rotate with cursor)
Twisting light (with a large number of polarizers)
Dichroism
Birefringence
Polarization by scattering - see the "Scattering" module in
WebTop
Polarization by reflection - see the "Reflection/Refraction" module in
WebTop
9. Interference.
Double slit
interference (emphasizing one particular point)
Interference between two waves from point sources
Ripple tank simulation (with 1 to 4
sources and other combinations)
Ripple tank simulation (add your own
sources and move them around)
Multiple source interference, point and line sources - see the "Waves" module in
WebTop
3 dimensional wave interference
Thin Film - showing transmitted and reflected wave
Thin film
interference with white light - simulates soap film colors
Fringes from Michelson interferometer and
detail about the contrast
Michelson interferometer - see the "Michelson Interferometer" module in
WebTop
Fabry-Perot Etalon - see the "Fabry-Perot Etalon" module in
WebTop
10. Diffraction.
Calculate diffraction
patterns with WebMathematica (online calculation with Mathematica on remote
server!) (You can also get some great 3d effects, for example, by choosing
Fraunhofer Diffraction - Circular Aperture, then using the mouse, grab the
LiveGraphics3D plot in the right-center window; you can rotate it. Now press s
to see stereo pictures. You will have to look "thru" the screen to get the
images to appear 3d. Press shift and move the mouse to zoom or rotate about an
axis perpendicular to the picture. Press the control key and move mouse to
change the 3-D aspect. You can even get the image to spin continuously if
you drag the mouse and release the left button while dragging.)
11. Fourier Optics.
12. Basics of Coherence Theory.
13. Modern Optics: Lasers and Other Topics.
Demonstration of a stable laser cavity.
Blackbody radiation (with spectrum and your choice of temperature)
More optics links:
Webtop is an extensive collection of optics simulations which you may download to your own computer for use in this course.
Optics Bench with examples of scripting, sample Physlet-based problems, and advanced examples
Physlet Resource CD (including links to Physlet collections used at several other universities for various courses)
Directory of Optics Education Programs
Physlets by Paul Falstad - contains some EM and Optics applets of interest
List of links written by other faculty at various institutions:
Phys. 106 at Univ. of Maryland (Spring 1998) - Ted Einstein's list of links
Applied Phys. 216 at Harvard - R.Victor Jones's list of links to tutorials and a list of links to other web resources
Univ. of Aberdeen - list of links