This course explores the relationships which exist between the performance of electrical, optical, and magnetic devices and the microstructural characteristics of the materials from which they are constructed. The class uses a device-motivated approach which emphasizes emerging technologies. Device applications of physical phenomena are considered, including electrical conductivity and doping, transistors, photodetectors and photovoltaics, luminescence, light emitting diodes, lasers, optical phenomena, photonics, ferromagnetism, and magnetoresistance.

This course discusses applications of electromagnetic and equivalent quantum mechanical principles to classical and modern devices. It covers energy conversion and power flow in both macroscopic and quantum-scale electrical and electromechanical systems, including electric motors and generators, electric circuit elements, quantum tunneling structures and instruments. It studies photons as waves and particles and their interaction with matter in optoelectronic devices, including solar cells, displays, and lasers.
The instructors would like to thank Scott Bradley, David Friend, Ta-Ming Shih, and Yasuhiro Shirasaki for helping to develop the course, and Kyle Hounsell, Ethan Koether, and Dmitri Megretski for their work preparing the lecture notes for OCW publication.

This is a comprehensive science textbook for Grade 12. You can download or read it on-line on your mobile phone, computer or iPad. Every chapter comes with video lessons and explanations which help bring the ideas and concepts to life. Summary presentations at the end of every chapter offer an overview of the content covered, with key points highlighted for easy revision. Topics covered are: organic molecules, organic chemistry, organic macromolecules, polymers, reaction rates, electrochemical reactions, the chemical industry, motion in two dimensions, mechanical properties of matter, work, energy and power, doppler effect, colour, 2D and 3D wavefronts, wave nature of matter, electrodynamics, electronics, electromagnetic radiation, optical phenomena and properties of matter, light, photoelectric effect, lasers. This book is based upon the original Free High School Science Text series.

This book treats optics at the level of students in the later stage of their bachelor or the beginning of their master. It is assumed that the student is familiar with Maxwell’s equations. Although the book takes account of the fact that optics is part of electromagnetism, special emphasis is put on the usefulness of approximate models of optics, their hierarchy and limits of validity. Approximate models such as geometrical optics and paraxial geometrical optics are treated extensively and applied to image formation by the human eye, the microscope and the telescope.

Polarisation states and how to manipulate them are studied using Jones vectors and Jones matrices. In the context of interference, the coherence of light is explained thoroughly. To understand fundamental limits of resolution which cannot be explained by geometrical optics, diffraction theory is applied to imaging. The angular spectrum method and evanescent waves are used to understand the inherent loss of information about subwavelength features during the propagation of light. The book ends with a study of the working principle of the laser.

In this activity, learners use gelatin as a lens to investigate the properties of laser light. Learners can view total internal reflection of a beam of light and investigate angles of reflection and refraction. Using different colors of gelatin demonstrates its color filtering properties. Use this activity to help learners explore light reflection and refraction, wavelengths, color, and lenses.

In this activity, learners use a laser pointer and two small rotating mirrors to create a variety of fascinating patterns, which can be easily and dramatically projected on a wall or screen. In this version of the activity, learners use binder clips to build the base of the device. Educators can use a pre-assembled device for demonstration purposes or engage learners in the building process.

Create a laser by pumping the chamber with a photon beam. Manage the energy states of the laser's atoms to control its output.

Create a laser by pumping the chamber with a photon beam. Manage the energy states of the laser's atoms to control its output.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they are introduced to Einstein's life and work with four engaging and kid-friendly areas. Equation Invasion, a look at the world's most famous equation about the relationship between energy and mass. Web Master, the scientists whose ideas and discoveries shaped Einstein's career. Light the Way, an introduction to "the fastest thing in the universe" and the waves it travels in. Everyday Einstein: LASERS, a comic strip that illustrates how Einstein's work led to the development of lasers.

6.161 offers an introduction to laboratory optics, optical principles, and optical devices and systems. This course covers a wide range of topics, including: polarization properties of light, reflection and refraction, coherence and interference, Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction, holography, imaging and transforming properties of lenses, spatial filtering, two-lens coherent optical processor, optical properties of materials, lasers, electro-optic, acousto-optic and liquid-crystal light modulators, optical detectors, optical waveguides and fiber-optic communication systems. Students engage in extensive oral and written communication exercises. There are 12 engineering design points associated with this subject.

Discover what controls how fast tiny molecular motors in our body pull through a single strand of DNA. How hard can the motor pull in a tug of war with the optical tweezers? Discover what helps it pull harder. Do all molecular motors behave the same?

6.637 covers the fundamentals of optical signals and modern optical devices and systems from a practical point of view. Its goal is to help students develop a thorough understanding of the underlying physical principles such that device and system design and performance can be predicted, analyzed, and understood.
Most optical systems involve the use of one or more of the following: sources (e.g., lasers and light-emitting diodes), light modulation components (e.g., liquid-crystal light modulators), transmission media (e.g., free space or fibers), photodetectors (e.g., photodiodes, photomultiplier tubes), information storage devices (e.g., optical disk), processing systems (e.g., imaging and spatial filtering systems) and displays (LCOS microdisplays). These are the topics covered by this course.

Did you ever imagine that you can use light to move a microscopic plastic bead? Explore the forces on the bead or slow time to see the interaction with the laser's electric field. Use the optical tweezers to manipulate a single strand of DNA and explore the physics of tiny molecular motors. Can you get the DNA completely straight or stop the molecular motor?

Students will explore reflection using hand mirrors and a laser pointer in this competitive activity.

Explore stretching just a single strand of DNA using optical tweezers or fluid flow. Experiment with the forces involved and measure the relationship between the stretched DNA length and the force required to keep it stretched. Is DNA more like a rope or like a spring?

Lasers are essential to an incredibly large number of applications. Today, they are used in bar code readers, compact discs, medicine, communications, sensors, materials processing, computer printers, data processing, 3D-imaging, spectroscopy, navigation, non-destructive testing, chemical processing, color copiers, laser "shows", and in the military. There is hardly a field untouched by the laser. But what exactly is so unique about lasers that makes them so effective?
This brief video course is designed for engineers, scientists, medical personnel, managers, and others who work with lasers and/or fiberoptics, or who anticipate working with lasers and/or fiberoptics, yet have little or no background in laser or fiberoptic basics. The course focuses on fundamentals and emphasizes a physical intuitive interpretation of laser and fiberoptic phenomena and their applications. Because Prof. Ezekiel keeps mathematics to a minimum, the topics covered are easily understood, without the need for a strong technical background. Prof. Ezekiel uses plain language, graphic illustrations, and video demonstrations to explain the basic characteristics of lasers and fiberoptics.
These videos were produced by the MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study.

Field experience using geodetic and geophysical tools provides a unique opportunity for upper-level undergraduates to learn research skills applicable to their future graduate research or career path. This unit introduces students to terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), a ground-based, remote-sensing tool that generates three-dimensional point clouds, that has widespread research applications in geodesy, geomorphology, structural geology, and other subfields of geology. After an introduction to the basics of TLS, students will design and conduct their own survey of a geologic feature, followed by an optional introductory exploration of TLS data after returning from the field.

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This resource contains demonstrations used to illustrate the theory and applications of lasers and optics. A detailed listing of the topics can be found below.
Lasers today are being used in an ever-increasing number of applications. In fact, there is hardly a field that has not been touched by the laser. Lasers are playing key roles in the home, office, hospital, factory, outdoors, and theater, as well as in the laboratory.
To learn about lasers and related optics, one usually takes a course or two, or acquires the necessary information from books and journal articles. To make this learning more vivid and more exciting, and, one hopes, more understandable, one needs to see some of the basic phenomena involved. To fill this need, Professor Ezekiel has videotaped 48 demonstrations that illustrate most of the fundamental phenomena relating to lasers and physical optics.
By using split-screen inserts and a wide range of video-recording capabilities, it is possible to show real-time effects in lasers and optics with the simultaneous manipulation of the components that cause these effects. In this way, one can see effects in close up that would be difficult, if not impossible, to display in front of an audience or in the classroom.
These video demonstrations are designed for:

The individual student of lasers and optics who wants to observe the various phenomena covered in theoretical treatments in courses, books, and technical papers.
The Instructor in lasers and optics in a company, university, college, or high school who wants to illustrate, in class, many of the fundamental phenomena in optics and lasers.

These videos were produced by the MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study.