Optics

Notes are on my up-to-date website

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