Questions tagged [optics]
Optics is the study of light, and its interaction with matter. It includes topics such as imaging systems, fiber optics, lasers, quantum optics, and more.
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Is it caustic reflection or hyperbolic projection?
actually last night I noticed a strange form of light rays on the wall of my room which were reflected off a CD. Here is its photo:
Please let me know what is it exactly? A caustic projection or ...
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What is Curvature of eye lens?
I wanted to know what do we mean by "curvature of eye lens", is it the reciprocal of $r$ i.e $c=1/r$ or is it synonymous to radius of curvature of the eye lens. Moreover how does aperture relate to ...
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Finding the illuminance from a triangular light source
Since most light sources in games are point-like, it's pretty difficult to approximate area light sources with point sources. As triangles are a universal form to represent 3D models (thus area light ...
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Astronauts in spacecraft, they have to circle the earth many times a day, do they also have the illusion of the moon?
Astronauts in spacecraft, they have to circle the earth many times a day, do they also have the illusion of the moon? I don't think they have, because according to the theory, the illusion of the moon ...
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Homogeneous gain saturation and single-longitudinal-mode lasing
I am currently studying Laser Systems Engineering by Keith Kasunic. Chapter 1.2.1 Temporal Coherence says the following:
Whether or not multiple axial modes will lase depends, in part, on the cavity-...
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Is Hong–Ou–Mandel effect reversible?
According to Hong–Ou–Mandel effect, two photons coming from the different ports will output by the same port with 2 photons since the cross term is canceled by a 1:1 beamsplitter. Since "light ...
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Why does the sun not burn your retinas when in peripheral vision?
After going to the ophthalmologist and having bright lights shone in my eyes, I was thinking about how the brightness only hurts when I looked at the light. When it was in my peripheral vision, it ...
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How is the phase gain of a Fabry-Perot resonator for gravitational wave detection derived?
I am trying to understand the use of the Fabry-Perot (FP) resonator in the arms of a gravitational wave detector. A typical explanation is that the gain in power in the arms is equal to $\sqrt{F}$ (...
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Huygens principle and path integral for classical waves
I want to better understand what the path integral is and what it isn't.
Even though I do this to learn QFT, this question is purely concerned with classical fields, no quantization is intended at all....
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Confusion regarding Young's double slit experiment in different media
The Problem
Consider the given arrangement:
Point $P$ is equidistant from $S_1$ and $S_2$ .The glass slab in air has refractive index $\mu_{2}$, and the one in water($\mu_{1}$) has refractive index $...
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How smooth/rough is a liquid surface?
Surface tension makes liquid surfaces smooth, but how smooth? How rough?
This question has an Experimental version and a Theoretical version:
E : Optics manufacturers quote specs like $1/4$ or $1/8$ ...
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What causes this circular reflection to form?
Holed up at home, I was distracting myself by shining my green laser pointer around. Something particularly interesting happened when I pointed the laser at a reflective black plastic surface. The ...
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Interference of single photons emitted from solid state sources
Solid state emitters such as quantum dots are thought of as being amongst the best single photon sources for quantum technology.
There have been impressive demonstrations of >10 photon experiments ...
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Electromagnetic energy density in a nonlinear medium
The energy density associated with the electric field in a linear medium of permitivity $ \epsilon $ is given as
$$
U = \frac{1}{2}\epsilon\left | E \right |^{2}
$$
As Robert Boyd mentions in the ...
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Amplitude of single-mode field in a cavity
I have two contradictory result about the amplitude of single mode field when it is quantized
In C. Gerry and P. Knight's Introductory quantum optics, the amplitude is given by
$$\sqrt{\frac{2\omega^...
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