Optics Fundamentals

Sergei Popov is an associate professor at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

Historical overview. Problems of modern optics and applications. Wave motion. Electromagnetic wave theory. Harmonic oscillator and dispersion theory. Refractive index and permittivity. Light in dielectric and metal media. Principle of superposition, group velocity, phase velocity. States of light polarization, Mueller matrix, Jones vectors, Stokes vectors, Poincare sphere. Light polarization in action. Crystal optics, polarizers, retarders, wave plates, liquid crystals. Reflection, refraction, Fresnel coefficients. Reflectance/transmittance, evanescent waves. Basics of near-field optics and plasmonics. Interference. Interferometers. Diffractive gratings. Diffraction. Rayleigh resolution. Fresnel, Fraunhofer diffraction. Waveguides, optical fibers, applications. Elements of Fourier-optics. Spatial filtering. Optical information processing. Transfer functions. Imaging of phase objects. Geometrical optics. Thin lens, mirror, prism. Ray tracing, ray matrix. Optical systems. Wavefront shaping. Optical aberrations. Radiation, radiometry & photometry. Black-body radiation.