Welcome to Physics 471!

Winter 2012

Instructor: John S. Colton; john_colton@byu.edu
Office: N335 ESC
Office hours: 3-4 MWF, in the Underground Lab under the skylight

TAs: Grayson Tarbox (grayson.tarbox@gmail.com) and Claira Wilson (claira.wilson@gmail.com)
TAs' office hours: 4-6 pm Tues (Grayson), 4-6 pm Thurs (Claira), in the walk-in lab S415 ESC

Announcements

9 Apr 2012 - Here are links to the color matching functions: the x-bar function; the y-bar function; the z-bar function; all three functions together
1 Feb 2012 - revised schedule posted
30 Dec 2011 - syllabus posted and most other parts of website now fully functional
30 Sep 2011 - barebones website set up

Textbooks

Physics of Light and Optics, by Peatross and Ware. Required textbook. (Called P&W, for short.) This is the main textbook for the class, and can be purchased at the bookstore. It is also available online at http://optics.byu.edu; feel free to download a copy. Please do not use the department printers to print the book from the pdf file, though, since the bookstore already sells the book at cost.
Optics, by Eugene Hecht. Optional textbook. This is the standard text in the field, and the one that I myself used when I was an undergraduate student at BYU. Its strengths and weaknesses make it the perfect complement for P&W: Hecht has a ton of qualitative descriptions and applications of the various concepts, but is a bit skimpy on the math. P&W on the other hand is much more mathematically intense but lacks a lot of real-world examples. I have turned to my own copy of Hecht for reference too many times to count since I graduated from BYU. It’s now on the 4^th edition, but cheap older editions are available. (I used the 2^nd edition myself, back in the day.) If you have any inkling of doing optics in graduate school or on a professional level, you should buy this book.
Electrodynamics, by David Griffiths. Optional textbook. This is the standard text for Physics 441 and 442, and overlaps the first part of this course quite a bit. Specifically, Griffiths chapters 8 and 9 are directly related to Peatross & Ware chapters 1-3—and in my opinion Griffiths is a clearer treatment.

Syllabus and Course Packet

optics syllabus - with revised schedule
revised schedule (syllabus pg 1), posted on 1 Feb 2012
original optics syllabus - Don't download this one!

Lecture Notes

lecture 1 - intro, multivariable calc: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 2 - maxwell's equations 1: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 3 - maxwell's equations 2: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 4 - materials, wave eqn: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 5 - complex numbers, etc.: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 6 - Lorentz model: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 7 - conductors, poynting, irradiance: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 8 - refraction and reflection: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 9 - Brewster, TIR, metals: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 10 - double interfaces: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 11 - interfaces at angles: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 12 - Fabry Perot: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 13 - multilayers: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 14 - light in crystals: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 15 - uniaxial crystals: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 16 - exam 1 review: PowerPoint | [no scanned notes]
lecture 17 - polarization states: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 18 - Jones matrices: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 19 - ellipsometry and group velocity: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 20 - group velocity, Fourier: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 21 - Gaussian pulse, frequency spectrum: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 22 - delta function, convolution: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lectures 23, 24 - Dr. Peatross substituting
lecture 25 - visibility - Fourier spectroscopy: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 26 - spatial coherence: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 27 - exam 2 review: PowerPoint | [no scanned notes]
lecture 28 - rays: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 29 - ABCD matrices: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 30 - complex imaging: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 31 - aberrations: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 32 - diffraction: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 33 - Fraunhofer diffraction: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 34 - array theorem, gratings, spectrometer: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 35 - cylindrical apertures: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 36 - diffraction through lens: PowerPoint | [sorry, I forgot to scan these notes]
lecture 37 - Gaussian beams: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 38 - exan 3 review: PowerPoint | [no scanned notes]
lecture 39 - blackbody radiation: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 40 - einstein A & B, lasers: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 41 - color, part 1: PowerPoint | scanned notes
lecture 42 - color, part 2: PowerPoint | scanned notes

Special Reading Assignments/Other Handouts

day 1 - "What you should already know" handout (please read before first day of class; I will bring hardcopies to class if you don't want to print it out)
day 5 - Complex numbers handout (please read before lecture 5; I will bring hardcopies to class if you don't want to print it out)
day 6 - Lorentz model handout, aka driven/damped harmonic oscillator (I will bring hardcopies to lecture 6)
day 8 - Derivation of s-polarization Fresnel coefficients (I will bring hardcopies to lecture 8)
day 13 - Multilayer examples
day 20 - Fourier series/transforms handout
day 22 - Dirac delta functions handout | Convolutions handout. Also, as mentioned in the handout, please play around with the convolution applet here to help develop your "convolution intuition".
day 35 - Bessel functions handout

Scores and Grade

To see your scores and grade so far in this course:

Class Identification Numbers

Obtain your class ID number

I-Clicker registration

Labs

Most of the labs have introductory videos that should help you get started. Please view the appropriate video before you begin the lab.

Old Exams

Here are some exams from Winter 2008 semester for you to use as study aids. Important notes: (a) Some of the chapters were in a different order compared to the current version of the book, so the exams didn't cover things in the same order. (b) There were only two midterm exams, rather than three. That also changed the coverage per exam.
Winter 2008 exam 1 | solutions
Winter 2008 exam 2 | solutions
Winter 2008 final exam | solutions

This semester's exams

Exam reviews
- Exam 1 review - Chapters 1-5 - note that there's an error in the first equation for T02. There's a ratio of cos(theta2)/cos(theta1) which should be cos(theta2)/cos(theta0). There's also a typo in the first equation under Lorentz model: it should be omega_P^2, not just omega_P.
- Exam 2 review - Chapters 6-8
- Exam 3 review - Chapters 9-11
- Final exam review - Chapter 13 and color
Exam solutions

How to get started

You need to do the following things as soon as the semester begins. (If you have added the class late, it's even more important to do them ASAP.)
→ If you have not received one in an email, get a "class ID number" using the "Obtain your class ID number" link on this page. You will use the CID as your personal identifier for all your assignments.
→ Read the syllabus, available either as a pdf file elsewhere on this web page, or as a handout on the first day of class. Among other things, the HW assignments and the "Colton problems" are found in the syllabus.
→ Get a copy of the Peatross & Ware textbook, either electronic or physical, or both. (See textbook info, elsewhere on this web page.)
→ Do the reading assignments for each upcoming lecture as marked on the schedule on the first page of the syllabus; if joining late, do the past reading assignments. In particular, go through the "What you should already know" handout below, as soon as you can.
→ Get an "i-clicker" at the bookstore if you don't already have one. Bring your clicker to each class.
→ Register your clicker (via the link elsewhere on this page) so that you get credit for in-class clicker quizzes.
→ Start working HW problems! The first assignment is due Tues, Jan 10. You can get partial credit for late assignments, so work the HW sets you miss/have missed, in addition to the ones coming up. HW due-dates are marked on the first page of the syllabus.
→ Turn in your HW problems to the slot labeled “Phys 471” in the box near room N375 ESC.
→ Sign up for a departmental computer account if you don't have one already, so that you can use the departmental computers (for e.g. problems that require Mathematica/Matlab).
→ Gain access to the departmental computer labs (N337 and N212) if you don't have access already, by talking to Diann Sorenson in room N281.

Supplementary Material

Here are several optics animations, many developed by Dr. Peatross as he was writing the textbook.