Optics is the study of light, and its interaction with matter. It includes topics such as imaging systems, fiber optics, lasers, quantum optics, and more.
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Optimal telescope size?
Consider a diffraction-limited telescope with unobstructed aperture $D$. Such a scope is capable of yielding an angular resolution $\alpha$ that scales as $\lambda/D$, with $\lambda$ denoting the ...
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181 views
light ray 'entropy'
Is there something like an entropy law for light rays?
I came up with the following experiment: A black box has two circular holes in it, a small and a large one. I don't care about there ...
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63 views
Third-order susceptibilities of metals?
Can anyone point me to a source for measurements of the third-order nonlinear electric susceptibilities $\chi^{(3)}$ of various metals? Specifically in relation to the AC Kerr effect, so measurements ...
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80 views
How can some optical microscopes measure height differences of different sample planes with nanometer accuracy?
I could use last week an optical microscope, didn't seem special in any way, 50x magnification, image viewable per a CCD camera on a computer screen besides through the ocular.
But the software of ...
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135 views
Is it possible to calculate the work function of a metal with basic lab equipment?
ive been given a problem in physics, its to prove if a lump of metal we have been given is real gold or not. one way to to do it would be to work out its density, which is fairly easy, mass/volume. ...
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319 views
How to turn water opaque by pouring the smallest quantity of matter into it?
Consider a glass of water and a glass of coffee. Their contents differ by no more than a few grams of particles coming from the roasted and ground coffee, yet the former lets almost all visible light ...
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86 views
Bandgap Spacing in Photonic Crystals
I am doing some self-study on photonics and have encountered the following question:
We know that amorphous electronic crystals such as amorphous silicon have a bandgap. Can amorphous photonic ...
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125 views
Future space-based telescope array
Radio-telescopes (e.g. the Very Large Array (VLA)) can simulate one gigantic dish by using separate smaller dishes.
Q: Could such an array of optical telescopes potentially see an exoplanet at say 20 ...
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70 views
How does a 2D MEMS based optical cross-connect control its mirrors?
Concerning fiber optics, I'd like to know how a 2D MEMS based optical cross-connect is able to switch optical signals. I've read that these mirrors are controlled with electrical signals to be either ...
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34 views
Does a “reflected” hologram produce a caustic in the shape of the original object?
Imagine you make a transmission hologram, ala the standard picture. Now you take your photographic plate, and everywhere it is transparent, you put a thin reflective layer on, and everywhere it is ...
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107 views
How do I use the electro-optic tensor?
I would like to calculate the performance of an optical phase modulator, in which a varying electric field across a crystal modulates the effective refractive index of light passing through the ...
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84 views
How can I estimate the elasto-optic coefficients ($p_{11}$ and $p_{12}$) of a material?
I am attempting to estimate the elasto-optic coefficients ($p_{11}$ and $p_{12}$) of $\mathrm{TiO}_2$ and $\mathrm{ZrO}_2$, where $p_{11}$ and $p_{12}$ refer to the elements of a strain-optic tensor ...
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42 views
A problem concerning the change of temperature and spectrum of a filament
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83373487@N04/7636968446/in/photostream
The spectrum of a filament is given before, the left one have the lowest tempreture, the middle has the medium and the right one ...
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101 views
Are cylindrical mirror telescopes possible?
Is it possible to use a set of cylindrical mirrors and software correction to build an optical reflector telescope, instead of using a paraboloid reflector? By 'cylindrical' I actually mean a planar ...
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114 views
projective camera: back-projecting a point on the image plane into 3-space
suppose I got a projective camera model. for this model I would like to back-project a ray through a point in the image plane. I know that the equation for this is the following:
$$
y(\lambda) = P^+ ...
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63 views
Optics: finding total power of a syste, including wavelength
Specifically I need to create an ABCD matrix given 2 radii of curvatures, the thickness of the lens, type of glass (BK7) and a given wavelength. I will have to figure this out eventually, so help ...
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118 views
Modeling a spray painted polyurethane surface reflection
I'm modeling light interaction/reflection from a fiberglass surface with polyurethane epoxy (that is very reflective) that has been spray painted with a matte black paint. I'm looking for some input ...
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17 views
Why is Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) preferred over Erbium Doped Waveguide Amplifier (EDWA)?
Why is Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) preferred over Erbium Doped Waveguide Amplifier (EDWA)?
The question has been asked from an engineering point of view, but obviously I would also be ...
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27 views
Non reciprocal light propagation
In search for some explanation in why magneto-optical materials (like the one used in the Faraday rotator and, consequently, in the "optical diode") act in such a "strange" way, I saw that this kind ...
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33 views
Smaller Airy disk with another lens?
Is it possible to reduce the airy disk size produced by one lens with another lens placed after the previous one? For example, parallel ray incident on first lens L1 (without aberration), then there ...
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114 views
How does a Fresnel rhomb work (half and quarter wave plate)?
How does a Fresnel rhomb work (half and quarter wave plate)?
I am aware of birefringence, which creates a phase shift of $\Delta\phi=\dfrac{2\pi\Delta nL}{\lambda_0}$. But this doesn't explain how a ...
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45 views
How to calculate the correct coordinates from a distorted video of a projectile?
I am working on a high school project that is related to projectile motion. I am exploring how exactly the position of the center of mass affects the trajectory of a long but thin, javelin-like ...
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82 views
How to calculate radiative transition rate of exciton in a quantum dot with specific dimension?
I am writing rate equations for a nanophotonic system including three quantum dots. I need to calculate that radiative transition rates of exciton in ground state in those quantum dots.
In the paper ...
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53 views
fiber optic second order PMD as an operator on the tensor product Hilbert space
Second order polarization mode dispersion (SOPMD) is a coupling mechanism between polarization and frequency. Take our photon to be the following tensor product:
$\psi = \int \gamma_{\omega} | ...
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94 views
Is there a simple model explaining Faraday effect?
I find magneto-optical effect fascinating, and especially Faraday effect. But most sources only give a phenomenological description, while I want a deeper explanation of its mechanism. Is there a ...
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143 views
What are Jones matrices and how to derive them?
I'm coding a software for an optics lab I'm working in and I need to know how to derive expressions for Jones matrices for various polarizes.
What does a Jones matrix represent and how would you ...
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43 views
References for Radio Optics?
I'm really intrigued by a bunch of questions like 'what do radio waves look like?' 'how much RF radiation is there in the town I live in?' 'why does RF imaging work?'
But I think I need to do some ...
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196 views
how does phase-shifting principle in interferometry work?
I have been using the coherence scanning interferometry (or also known as white light scanner), where it collects images containing the fringes. The system is able to produce the depth profile for one ...
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330 views
How to use the Coddington shape factor?
We are given $\sigma=\frac{r2+r1}{r2-r1}$, with $\sigma$ being the Coddington shape factor. What I am having problems with is solving for $r1$ and $r2$ when I am just given a focal length and a ...
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63 views
Quadrature Separation in Homodyne Detector
I am wondering in Homodyne detector structure with a beamsplitter, why phase of input beam to beamsplitter can be conjugated? I mean for example for an input beam operator b onto the beamsplitter at ...
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187 views
What defines the thickness of a Nomarski prism?
Lets say I want to design a Nomarski prism that would split the ordinary and extraordinary beam by an angle of 0.32 mrad. I used a raytracer to find the internal angle between the quartz wedges.
...
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43 views
Is my textbook in error about this geometric optics relation?
Given a centered optical system (having an axis of rotational symmetry), let $H_1$ be the intersection of the optical axis and the "principal object plane" (I'm studying in French and have no idea how ...
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26 views
Direct Normal Insolation
I need a help please.I'm struggling to know how to convert from KWh/m2/day to a flux unit.
For example, if I have a Direct Normal Insolation (DNI) that is equal to 7.41 KWh/m2/day, how can I convert ...
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52 views
Definition of frequency domain coordinates
I am using the Fourier Transform in Optics to perform differentiation with a filter by making use of the relation
$\frac {\partial}{\partial x} f(x)=2\pi i \int^{\infty}_{-\infty} u F(u) \exp (2i\pi ...
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26 views
Interference of 2 slit experiment when glass is put infront of 1 slit (+0.5 lambda optical path)
The question and answer is given in the image below:
I don't really understand how to work this out myself. How do I relate $+\frac{1}{2} \lambda$ to (phase difference) $\Delta\Phi = \pi$
UPDATE
...
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165 views
Why a person with a further near point experience a larger magnification with a magnifier
Two people, Micah and Lyra, with different near points are equally
close to an object. Both inspect the object through the same magnifier
by holding the lens close to the eye. Micah's near ...
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54 views
cgs Gauss' system of units
I had never seen this system until today, and I'm really confused. I've read the wikipedia article about it but I still don't know how to change between this and the international system. For example, ...
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60 views
Are EM waves scattered the most when the wavelength and the obstacle have a similar size?
I heard that when the wavelength and obstacle are similar in size, the scattering is the greatest. Is this true?
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41 views
EigenMode expansion for beam propagation
I want to understand how to apply EigenMode expansion method (http://www.photond.com/files/docs/PW03_eme_paper.pdf) for beam propagation on a system of lenses.
The interface between two mediums of ...
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41 views
Weakly Guiding Approximation
I was reading a chapter on Fiber Optics and I encountered Weakly Guiding Approximation. I am reading John M. Senior and it says ...
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218 views
What is the correct definition of “group velocity dispersion”?
When we talk about a medium with dispersion, we can define the phase velocity $v_\phi = \omega/k$ and the group velocity $v_g = d\omega/dk$. Likewise the phase index $n = c/v_\phi$ and the group index ...
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22 views
Spectral efficiency of combined light sources
I am creating a white light source using 3 LEDs of Red, Blue and Green with relative spectral efficiencies of 0.0041, 0.06 and 1 respectively. How would I work out the spectral efficiency of the ...
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67 views
Is it feasible to detect light emitted from planet earth 2,000 years ago by reflection from an object situated 1000 light years away?
The possibility though remote, is intriguing as we may be able in the future to actually "see" our own planet's history.
Though sounding science fiction, if we are able to detect bodies in space that ...
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94 views
Extracting Optical Conductivity From Optical Transmission Data in Graphene on SiC Wafer:
In this paper, the authors write
Matching the optical boundary conditions at the air/graphene/SiC interfaces, the optical transmission $t(\omega)$ through $N$ graphene layers on a SiC wafer ...
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40 views
How does a lens affect the field of view in a mirror?
If one looks into a mirror, he can see a certain field of view.
If he places a convex lens that magnifies (or a concave lens that does the opposite) in front of the mirror, but so that he can still ...
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127 views
Reflectance and phase shift vs incident angle and wavelength
Plot the refectance and phase shift on reflection $\varphi$ for p and s polarized light versus incident angle $\theta$ for various wavelength $\lambda_1=.., \lambda_2=..,..$ in the simple case of ...
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204 views
Intensity of the diffraction pattern of the double slit
I am trying another approach for my last unanswered question. (Bounty still on for 3 days. Anyone? Please?) Note that this is not the same question but a greatly simplified version concerning a much ...
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43 views
Observing through a 90 degrees positioned telescope on a flat surface
Assuming I'm standing in the middle of the ocean with a large telescope, positioned such that it's angle is 90 degrees (i.e, it's parallel to the sea) and assume that there are no light interferences ...
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124 views
Instrumentation how-to: Raman Spectroscopy on single molecules (TERS)
The last two decades have brought a tremendous progress in the high resolution visualisation of single molecules. The molecules reside on an atomically flat surface and the imaging technique used is ...
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94 views
Why are subjects upside down when I look through my door peephole?
There is a convex lens 3/4" on the outside and 1 1/2" convex lens on the inside.
Each lens has one flat side facing out and one convex side facing in.
What can be done to correct this image?
