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Lecture

Beam Optics: Introduction and Applications

In course

CH-417: Optical methods in chemistry

Introduction and application of photon based tools for chemical sciences: from basic concepts to optical and x-ray lasers ...

Description

This lecture introduces beam optics, covering ray optics, wave optics, beams, diffraction, Fourier optics, principles of lasers, microscopy, manipulation, spectroscopy, X-rays, diffraction, imaging, and spectroscopy. Special cases like the Fresnel approximation for spherical waves are discussed, along with Gaussian beams and their solutions for the Helmholtz equation. The Gaussian beam, named after Carl Friedrich Gauss, is explored in depth, including its intensity distribution and depth of focus. The lecture also delves into the concepts of phase and amplitude separation, complex envelope solutions, and the Gaussian beam's complex envelope. Additionally, the lecture touches on the concepts of beam waist, intensity distribution, and curvature of wavefronts.

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Instructor

Christoph Bostedt

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Optics: Fourier optics

Related concepts (32)

Optics

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.

Fresnel diffraction

In optics, the Fresnel diffraction equation for near-field diffraction is an approximation of the Kirchhoff–Fresnel diffraction that can be applied to the propagation of waves in the near field. It is used to calculate the diffraction pattern created by waves passing through an aperture or around an object, when viewed from relatively close to the object. In contrast the diffraction pattern in the far field region is given by the Fraunhofer diffraction equation. The near field can be specified by the Fresnel number, F, of the optical arrangement.

Physical optics

In physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid. This usage tends not to include effects such as quantum noise in optical communication, which is studied in the sub-branch of coherence theory. Physical optics is also the name of an approximation commonly used in optics, electrical engineering and applied physics.

Geometrical optics

Geometrical optics, or ray optics, is a model of optics that describes light propagation in terms of rays. The ray in geometrical optics is an abstraction useful for approximating the paths along which light propagates under certain circumstances. The simplifying assumptions of geometrical optics include that light rays: propagate in straight-line paths as they travel in a homogeneous medium bend, and in particular circumstances may split in two, at the interface between two dissimilar media follow curved paths in a medium in which the refractive index changes may be absorbed or reflected.

Fraunhofer diffraction

In optics, the Fraunhofer diffraction equation is used to model the diffraction of waves when plane waves are incident on a diffracting object, and the diffraction pattern is viewed at a sufficiently long distance (a distance satisfying Fraunhofer condition) from the object (in the far-field region), and also when it is viewed at the focal plane of an imaging lens. In contrast, the diffraction pattern created near the diffracting object and (in the near field region) is given by the Fresnel diffraction equation.

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