Physics 300 (Optics and Waves)

Fall 2008


Instructor: Prof. Chris Jacobsen (Chris.Jacobsen@stonybrook.edu, office D-102, phone 631-632-8093).  Office hours in general: Tuesdays 12:30 - 13:30 or by appointment.  Please feel free to contact me to meet at other times!
Laboratory T.A.:

Lecture schedule. Mondays and Wednesdays, 14:20 - 15:40, Physics P-117.  This is an approximate schedule; I expect to deviate from it!
Date
Subject
Homework to be handed in
Wednesday, Sep. 3
Lecture 1: Course information. How to describe waves.
Monday, Sep. 8
Lecture 2: Complex notation; adding waves French problems (Parlez-vous anglais?) 1-3,4,5,6,7,9,11 and 2-1,2,4,5. 
Wendesday, Sep. 10
Lecture 3: Harmonic montion from various means; damped harmonic oscillators
Monday, Sep. 15
Lecture 4: Driven and damped, driven harmonic oscillators French problems 3-1,2,5,14,15,16 and 4-3,4,9,10,13. 
Wednesday, Sep. 17
Lecture 5: Energy in the DDHO, and coupled oscillators
Monday, Sep. 22
Lecture 6: Coupled oscillators: general properties, and with driving French problems 4-16, 17 and 5-6, 7, 9.
Wednesday, Sep. 24
Lecture 7: From 2 to N oscillators
Monday, Sep. 29
Lecture 8: Traveling waves, and electromagnetic waves
Wednesday, Oct. 1
No classes - Rosh Hashanah

Monday, Oct. 6
Exam 1
Wednesday, Oct. 8
Lecture 9: Anomalous dispersion and refractive indices.

Monday, Oct. 13
Lecture 10: The Poynting vector

Wednesday, Oct. 15
Lecture 11: Waves traveling as rays
Monday, Oct. 20
Lecture 12: Refraction and lenses

Wednesday, Oct. 22
Lecture 13: Optics of the eye; matrix methods (Fowles Chap. 10)

Monday, Oct. 27
Lecture 14: Matrix methods and complex optical systems (Fowles Chap. 10)

Wednesday, Oct. 29
Lecture 15: Aberrations: spherical and chromatic

Monday, Nov. 3
Lecture 16: Light polarization; Jones matrices; Fresnel equations (Fowles Chap. 2)
Wednesday, Nov. 5
Lecture 17: Fresnel equations continued; reflection; scattering; evanescent waves.
Monday, Nov. 10
Exam 2
Wednesday, Nov. 12
Lecture 18: Fresnel equations for metals; Stoke's equations and reflectivity from a thin glass slab
Monday, Nov. 17
Lecture 19: Huygens' construction, Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction, and Fourier analysis
Wednesday, Nov. 19
Lecture 20: Fourier analysis and diffraction continued
Monday, Nov. 24
Lecture 21: Diffraction gratings; optical fibers
Wedesday, Nov. 26
No class - early start to Thanksgiving break.

Monday, Dec. 1
Lecture 22: Holography

Wednesday, Dec. 3
Lecture 23: Lasers

Monday, Dec. 8
Lecture 24:

Wednesday, Dec. 10
Lecture 25:

Monday, Dec. 15
Review

Wednesday, Dec. 17
Final exam: 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm.

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PHY 300 Lab schedule (A-124).  Section 1: Thursdays 14:20-16:20.  Section 2: Thursdays 17:20-19:20.  Notes on error analysis are here, and suggestions on writing lab reports are ???
Date
Lab
Thursday, Sep. 4
No lab
Thursday, Sep. 11
Lab 1:
Thursday, Sep. 18
Lab 2:
Thursday, Sep. 25
Lab 3:
Thursday, Oct. 2
Lab 4:
Thursday, Oct. 9
Lab 5:
Thursday, Oct. 16
Lab 6:
Thursday, Oct. 23
Lab 7:
Thursday, Oct. 30
Lab 8:
Thursday, Nov. 6
Lab 9:
Thursday, Nov. 13
Lab 10:
Thursday, Nov. 20
Lab 11:
Thursday, Nov. 27
No lab; Thanksgiving break.
Thursday, Dec. 4
Make-up lab
Thursday, Dec. 11
No lab
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