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Optics & Waves
48 flashcards
A laser is a device that produces a highly intense, coherent, and monochromatic beam of light through the process of stimulated emission.
Light exhibits characteristics of both waves and particles, known as the wave-particle duality.
The speed of light in a vacuum is approximately 3 x 10^8 m/s, denoted as c.
A wavefront is a surface representing the points of a wave at the same phase at a given instant in time.
The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection for a light ray reflecting off a smooth surface.
Refraction is the bending of a wave when it passes obliquely from one medium to another with a different refractive index.
Snell's law describes the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction, and the refractive indices of the two media involved in refraction.
Total internal reflection is the complete reflection of a wave at the boundary between two media when the angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle.
Diffraction is the spreading out of a wave after passing through an aperture or around an obstacle, due to the wave nature of light.
Interference is the superposition of two or more waves, resulting in a new wave pattern with regions of reinforcement and cancellation.
A convex lens is a lens that is thicker at the center than at the edges, and causes parallel rays of light to converge.
A concave lens is a lens that is thinner at the center than at the edges, and causes parallel rays of light to diverge.
The focal point of a lens is the point where parallel rays of light converge (for a convex lens) or appear to diverge from (for a concave lens).
An optical system is a combination of optical elements, such as lenses and mirrors, designed to achieve a specific optical function, like imaging or beam shaping.
A compound microscope is an optical system that uses two lenses, an objective and an eyepiece, to produce a magnified image of a small object.
A telescope is an optical instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting and focusing their light.
Dispersion is the separation of white light into its constituent colors due to the wavelength-dependent refractive index of a material.
Polarization is the restriction of the vibration of a transverse wave to a single plane.
A standing wave is a wave that remains in a constant position, resulting from the interference of two waves traveling in opposite directions.
The Doppler effect is the change in the observed frequency of a wave due to the relative motion between the source and the observer.
A fiber optic cable is a cable containing one or more glass or plastic fibers that can transmit light signals over long distances with minimal loss.
The principle of superposition states that the resultant wave is the algebraic sum of the individual waves at any given point in space and time.
The Huygens-Fresnel principle states that every point on a wavefront can be considered as a source of secondary spherical wavelets, which together form the new wavefront.
The Rayleigh criterion is a criterion used to determine the resolving power of an optical instrument, based on the ability to distinguish two closely spaced point sources.
Chromatic aberration is a type of optical aberration that causes different wavelengths of light to focus at different points, resulting in color fringes around the image.
Spherical aberration is a type of optical aberration that occurs when light rays from the same point source, but at different distances from the optical axis, focus at different points.
The Brewster angle is the angle of incidence at which light is completely polarized when reflecting off a surface.
A waveguide is a structure that confines and guides waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound waves, along a specific path.
The Fresnel zone is a series of concentric ellipsoidal regions that define the areas of constructive and destructive interference for a wave propagating between two points.
A diffraction grating is an optical component with a periodic structure that separates incident light into its constituent wavelengths by diffraction.
The Fermat principle states that the path taken by a light ray between two points is the path that requires the shortest time.
A hologram is a three-dimensional image created by recording the interference pattern of light scattered from an object and a reference beam.
The Malus law describes the intensity of light transmitted through a polarizer as a function of the angle between the polarization directions of the polarizer and the incident light.
The Abbe sine condition is a condition that must be satisfied for an optical system to be free from coma, a type of optical aberration.
Rayleigh scattering is the elastic scattering of light by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the light, and is responsible for the blue color of the sky.
Mie scattering is the scattering of light by particles comparable in size to the wavelength of the light, and is responsible for the white color of clouds and fog.
Raman scattering is the inelastic scattering of light by molecules, resulting in a shift in the wavelength of the scattered light due to the exchange of energy with the molecular vibrations.
The Bragg condition is a condition that must be satisfied for constructive interference to occur in the diffraction of waves by a periodic structure, such as in X-ray crystallography.
The Talbot effect is a self-imaging phenomenon in which a periodic object, when illuminated by a coherent light source, reproduces its image at regular intervals along the propagation direction.
The Gouy phase shift is an additional phase shift experienced by a focused beam of light, beyond the phase shift due to propagation, caused by the curvature of the wavefront.
A Fabry-Perot interferometer is an optical device consisting of two parallel mirrors that produce multiple interference patterns, used for high-resolution spectroscopy and other applications.
Fourier optics is a branch of optics that analyzes and manipulates the propagation of light using Fourier transforms, allowing for the understanding and design of optical systems and their behavior.
The Sagnac effect is a phenomenon that arises from the interference of light beams traveling in opposite directions around a rotating ring, and is used in devices like fiber-optic gyroscopes.
Fraunhofer diffraction is a type of diffraction that occurs when the light source and the observation point are effectively at an infinite distance from the diffracting aperture or object.
Fresnel diffraction is a type of diffraction that occurs when the light source and the observation point are at finite distances from the diffracting aperture or object.
The Kirchhoff diffraction theory is a mathematical formulation that describes the diffraction of light by apertures or obstacles, based on the Huygens-Fresnel principle and the boundary conditions imposed by the aperture or obstacle.
The Zernike polynomials are a set of orthogonal polynomials used to describe the wavefront aberrations in optical systems, providing a standard way to quantify and understand optical aberrations.
The Poynting vector is a vector field that represents the directional energy flux density of an electromagnetic field, describing the flow of electromagnetic energy.