Optics
Course description
Optika is an elective course in wave optics for third-year undergraduates in the FMF physics program. These notes are from the summer semester of the 2020-21 academic year, when the course was taught by professor Irena Drevenšek Olenik (lecture) and dr. Andrej Petelin (exercises). Material covered in the course includes:
- a summary of geometrical optics
- Maxwell’s equations and the wave equation in free space
- the wave equation in conducting matter
- polarization of electromagnetic waves
- the Fresnel equations; the wave theory reflection and refraction
- Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction
- interference and the working principles of interferometers
- an overview of scattering, coherence, and optical activity
- microscopic models of the refractive index
- optics in anisotropic media
- a semiclassical introduction to the laser