Optics & Photonics
The physics of light and its control: how lenses form images, why light interferes and diffracts, and how lasers and optical fibres turned light into a precise technological tool.
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour of light, including its propagation, reflection, refraction, interference, diffraction and polarisation, and its interaction with matter; photonics is the science and technology of generating, controlling and detecting light, especially with lasers and optical fibres.
What this covers
Optics spans three levels of description. Geometric optics treats light as rays and explains mirrors, lenses and instruments. Wave optics, rooted in Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, explains interference, diffraction and polarisation. Quantum optics treats light as photons and explains lasers, single-photon sources and the light–matter interactions behind spectroscopy. This domain covers all three, along with photonic technologies.
Geometric Optics
- Reflection [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Refraction [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Lenses [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Mirrors [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Optical Instruments [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
Wave Optics
- Wave Optics [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Interference [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Young's Double Slit [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Diffraction [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Single Slit Diffraction [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Diffraction Grating [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Polarisation [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
Lasers & Photonics
- Lasers [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Stimulated Emission [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Population Inversion [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Optical Fibres [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Photonic Crystals [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Non-Linear Optics [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Holography [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
Quantum Optics & Spectroscopy
- Quantum Optics [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Spectroscopy [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Emission Spectra [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Absorption Spectra [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
- Raman Effect [PENDING FULL ENTRY]
Already covered elsewhere in the Codex
No full entries in this domain are published yet. These live pages, in other domains, already cover closely related material:
- Double-Slit Experiment — interference of light and of single particles
- Double-Slit Simulation — interactive interference pattern
- Photoelectric Effect — light as photons
- Wave-Particle Duality — the two faces of light
- Maxwell's Equations — the electromagnetic basis of wave optics
- Crystal Structure — X-ray diffraction and Bragg's law
- Gravitational Lensing — light bent by gravity rather than glass
- James Clerk Maxwell — light as an electromagnetic wave
Sources
- Hecht, E. (2017). Optics (5th ed.). Pearson.
- Born, M., Wolf, E. (1999). Principles of Optics (7th ed.). Cambridge University Press.