• Light is radiant energy.

• Travels very fast – 300,000 km/sec!

• Can be described either as a wave or as a
particle traveling through space.
Absorption and Emission of light by an
atom
Wavelength and Frequency
 White Light
• Light from the Sun arrives with all wavelengths, and
we perceive this mixture of colors as white
• Newton demonstrated that white light could be split
into its component colors with a prism, and then
recombined into white light with a lens
Measurements of the speed of light
Ray approximation in ray optics

A plane wave propagating to the right

A plane wave of wavelength λ is incident on a barrier in which there is an
opening of diameter d.
Examples of reflection
Law of reflection,
Applications of retro reflection
Index of Refraction
Index of Refraction
Dispersion of light
Dispersion of light
Formation of rainbow
Total internal reflection
Optical fiber
Image formation
Images formed by flat mirrors
 Images formed by spherical mirrors
• Reflection of parallel rays from a concave mirror
 Magnification and mirror equation
• M = Image height / Object height
• M = h’/ h
• Mirror equation in terms of radius of curvature,

• Mirror equation in terms of focal length,

Compound Microscope
Compound Microscope
Human Eye
 Human Eye
Approximate color sensitivity of the three types of
cones in the retina
 Your 2 Lenses: Cornea and Lens

• There are two lenses in your eye, the cornea and the lens.
• The cornea, the front surface of the eye, does most of the focusing
in your eye
• The lens provides adjustable fine-tuning of the focus
 Focusing Problems
HYPEROPIA
• Far-sightedness
• Problem seeing close
objects
• Distance between lens
and retina too small
• Light focused behind
retina
• Corrected with
converging lenses
Far-Sighted (Hyperopia)
 Focusing Problems
PRESBYOPIA
• Form of far-sightedness
• Harder for people to read
as they age
• Lens loses elasticity
• Corrected by glasses with
converging lenses
 Focusing Problems
MYOPIA
• Near-sightedness
• Problem seeing objects
far away
• Distance between lens
and retina too large
• Light focused in front of
retina
• Correct with diverging
lenses
Near-Sighted (Myopia)
 Astigmatism
• Astigmatism Means That The Cornea
Is Oval, Like A Football
• A normal cornea has spherical shape
• Most astigmatic corneas have two
curves
• Astigmatism often occurs along with
nearsightedness or farsightedness

Signs, Symptoms, and Causes

• Blurred vision near and distance
• Astigmatism is usually hereditary
• Many people born with an oblong
cornea
• Astigmatism may also result from an
eye injury
 Superposition and Interference
If two waves occupy the same space, their amplitudes
add at each point. They may interfere either
constructively or destructively.
 Conditions for Interference

• If two waves have a definite phase

relationship then they are coherent.
• For Interference:
– The sources must be coherent.
– The sources should be monochromatic.
Conditions for constructive and destructive
interference

For constructive  1  1
2t   m  n 2nt   m   m = 0,1,2,…
interference,  2  2

For destructive
2nt  m m = 0,1,2,…
interference,
Young’s Double-Slit Experiment
  r2  r1  d sin  d   sin   tan  y  L tan   L sin 
L  d
L
  d sin   m Constructive interference ybright  m
d
 1 Destructive interference L  1
  d sin    m   ydark   m  
 2 m  0,1,2,... d  2
 Intensity Distribution of the Interference
Pattern
E1  E0 sin t E2  E0 sin t   

  r2  r1  d sin 
If  then   2
   2
   2  d sin 
 2  

   
EP  E1  E2 I  EP  4 E0 cos 2   sin 2  t  
2 2

2  2
EP  E0 sin t  sin t   
 
I  I max cos 2  
2
   
EP  2 E0 cos  sin  t    d sin    d 
2  2 I  I max cos 2   I  I max cos 2  y
    L 
 Intensity Distribution of the Interference
Pattern
• Interference depends on the relative phase of the
two waves.
• It also depends on the path difference between them.
• The resultant intensity at a point is proportional to
the square of the resultant electric field at that point.
I  E1  E2 
2
Change of Phase due to Reflection

Lloyd’s mirror.
The reflected ray undergoes a
phase change of 180°.
Interference in a Wedge Shaped Film

Destructive interference at the tip because of 180°

phase change for the front surface and no phase
change for the back surface.

For destructive
2ntm  m
interference

1  For constructive
2nt m    m 
2  interference
Uses for Young’s Double-Slit Experiment

• Young’s double-slit experiment provides a

method for measuring wavelength of the
light.
•This experiment gave the wave model of
light a great deal of credibility.
 Diffraction
•If the light traveled in a straight line after
passing through the slits, no interference
pattern would be observed.
•From Huygens’s principle we know the
waves spread out from the slits.
•This divergence of light from its initial line
of travel is called diffraction.
Narrow slit diffraction
Intensity of single slit diffraction pattern

2
 sin( a(sin  ) /  ) 
I  I max  
  a (sin  ) /  
Intensity of two slit diffraction pattern
Diffraction Grating
Diffraction Grating
 Diffraction Grating
The maxima of the diffraction pattern are defined
by
 Diffraction Gratings
Diffraction can also be observed upon reflection from
narrowly-spaced reflective grooves; the most familiar
example is the recorded side of a CD. Some insect wings
also display reflective diffraction, especially butterfly
wings.
 Applications of diffraction grating

A Laue pattern of a A Laue pattern of

Diffraction grating spectrometer single crystal the enzyme Rubisco

A small portion of a grating light valve

In this hologram, a circuit board is shown from
two different views.
• At night it is difficult to see through a closed glass-window from
inside of an illuminated room. But this becomes relatively easy if
the lights in the room are switched off. – Why?
• This happens due to change in relative brightness
of the outside objects with respect to other bodies.
• If the lights are on, the objects in the room are
much brighter than the outside objects and the
glass also reflects much light making it difficult to see the outside
objects. When the room-lights are off – the amount of light
reflected by the glass or the other objects in the room decreases
considerably making the outside body relatively brighter.
• This is similar to the case of stars not being visible in presence of
the sun while they become visible in the night-time.
• Cinema screens are made rough and white – why?

• As the surface of the screen is rough, light incident on it undergoes

diffused reflection making the image visible from all the portions of
the audience. If it was very smooth, reflected light would reach only
a small part of the audience. Then too the image wouldn’t be
visible due to its excessive brightness.
• A white surface reflects all colors equally producing the image in its
actual color. A colored screen would change the color of the image.
•Can a convex lens behave as a diverging lens?

•In general the lenses are made up of glass and the

surrounding medium is air. Under such conditions a
convex lens behaves as a converging lens. In this
situation the refractive index of the lens medium is
larger than the refractive index of its surrounding.
But if we immerse the lens in a fluid such that the
refractive index of the fluid is larger than that of the
lens then the nature of refraction is opposite and it
becomes a diverging lens.
• A droplet of water on lotus leaf appears shining –
why?

• This happens due to total internal reflection of light. Water

droplets cannot make the surface of the leaf wet as a thin
layer of air forms beneath it. When a ray of light passes
through water (of the droplet) and is incident on the air layer
at an angle greater than the critical angle the light suffers total
internal reflection giving it a shining appearance.
 Formative Assessment
An object that transmits light with scattering can be described as
a) transparent
b) Translucent
c) opaque
d) none of the above
A smooth surface that reflects light to form an image is called a(n)
a) mirror
b) lens
c) optical axis
d) Camera
Objects that allow all light to shine through are called
a) opaque
b) transparent
c) translucent
d) mirrors
A is used to separate white light into all its colors
a) polarized filter
b) lens
c) prism
d) magnifying glass
When light rays reflect off a plane mirror, the angle of incidence is
a) greater than the angle of refraction
b) less than the critical angle
c) equals the angle of reflection
Which path shows the way light will travel after hitting a mirror?
a) Path 3
b) Path 1
c) Path 2
d) Path 4
When a light travels from a more dense material such as glass to a less dense
material such as air, the light ray refracts:
a) in the same direction as the incident ray
b) away from the normal line
c) towards the normal line
When light rays travel at a critical angle through an object such as optical fibre, they
are:
a) totally internally reflected
b) refracted out of the fibre
c) termed "critically angled“
The wave interaction shown below is caused when the wave passes from one
medium to another changing
a) Speed
b) Amplitude
c) Frequency
d) Length
Driving on a foggy night can be difficult because the light from headlights of the car
is
a) Diffracted and then reflected by the particles of water in the air
b) absorbed and then scattered by the particles of water in the air
c) refracted and then absorbed by the particles of water in the air
d) reflected and then absorbed by the particles of water in the air