Physics 3232 Optics I

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Physics 3232 Optics I
Professor Rick Trebino Howey Physics
Building Office N011 4-1690 Cell phone
404-510-1690 rick.trebino_at_physics.gatech.edu Class
hours TTh 130-3 Office hours after class Call
my cell phone anytime! Class TA Lina XuHowey
Physics Building, Ultrafast Optics Lab, S05,
404-385-1223 gth665y_at_mail.gatech.edu
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Why study optics?
This course will change the way you look at the
world. Literally. Well talk about things you
see every day but generally dont question. Why
do windows act like mirrors at night (when youre
inside)? Does light really always travel in a
straight line? Whats the difference between a
laser and a light bulb? Whats going on in a
rainbow? Why is the sky blue? Why is an oily
film on a puddle so colorful? Whats all this
business about light slowing down and speeding up?
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Bedtime reading
Course required texts Eugene Hecht, Optics,
4th ed. J.F. James, A Student's Guide to
Fourier Transforms
Other books R.N. Bracewell, The Fourier
Transform and Its Applications (100) G.R.
Fowles, Introduction to Modern Optics (15)
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Homework
Homework will be due on its due date at 5PM in
our TAs mail box in the physics officenot in
class or under my door. We'll try to grade and
return the homework within a few days.
Everyone will be allowed to turn in one
assignment late (due the following class or when
we return the home-work, whichever is later
email our TA, who will keep track of this).
You can work with others on homework (I
encourage you to do so!), but write it up
yourself.
HW problems shouldnt re-quire many pages each,
so if youre having trouble, talk to us.
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Quizzes and other detestable stuff
There will be three quizzes, which we'll go over
in class and try to return to you the following
class. Ill drop your lowest quiz score, so if
youre sick or just having a bad day on quiz day,
dont worry. Sept. 25 Thursday Quiz 1 Oct.
21 Tuesday Quiz 2 Nov. 25 Tuesday Quiz 3
There will be a project, but no
final. Grading Each quiz (2) 25 Project
25 Homework 25
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Project
Interference between different sources yields
nodes and anti-nodes.
Node patterns of two sources with different
spacings
It will involve creating a PowerPoint lecture on
an advanced optics subject of your choice
(Ill make suggestions). Dont worry you
wont have to present it just create it. (By
creating one, youve given me implicit permission
to put an edited version of it in the class
lectures on my web site for dissemination to
anyone teaching optics to anyonewith credit
given to you for creating it. Thanks!) Itll
be due the last class day of the term.
Such interference occurs for counter-propagating
laser beams, too.
A typical slide
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No ones perfect. So I give lots of partial
credit.
But you must say what youre doing! Write a lot
of text in addition to equations in your homework
and quizzes.
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My lectures are on the web.
All my lectures are in PowerPoint and are on my
web site www.physics.gatech.edu/frog (click on
Lectures). Please download them before
class, so you dont have to take many notes in
class.
Theyre pretty complete and stable now, so you
can download them all now and youll have the
whole terms lectures in front of you! But I may
change some slightly.
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The Importance of Having Class

• You should come to class because theres a lot
  that Ill say that wont be in the Power Point
  files. And which will be on the quizzes.
• In the past, people who have skipped a lot of
  classes have received very bad grades.
  Conversely, people whove come to most or all of
  the classes nearly always receive As and Bs.

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Looking to the future
There should be an Optics Lab course this
spring. Ill be teaching a first-year graduate
optics course that follows this one in the
spring of 2009, called Ultrafast Optics, Physics
6567. If you do well in this course, you should
be able to do well in Ultrafast Optics also.
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There will be a Class Party!
Meet your classmates, my grad students, and
others whove taken Optics I in the past (and
survived!). Well try to pick a date thats
convenient for everyone. Itll be at my home,
which is very interesting. Ill distribute
maps, and we can carpool. Bring a date (or
dates) or friend(s)!
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Why study optics? Lasers and fiber optics will
soon replace most wires.
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Optics has some unintuitive ideas.
But when you think about them for a while, they
make sense.
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Understanding the ideas of each lecture requires
the knowledge of the previous lectures.
If you keep up, you wont end up looking like
this the night before the quizzes!