Home Page of the Lectures "330: Modern Experimental Optics", Fall 2006


Professor:
Georg Hoffstaetter


(607)255-5197, 118 Newman Lab, Georg.Hoffstaetter@cornell.edu
(607)254-8981, 226 Wilson Lab, www.lepp.cornell.edu/~hoff
Teaching Assistant: Adrew Noble
(607)255-5722, Newman Lab, an76@cornell.edu





Literature Dates
Literature
  Handouts
Quizzes and Final Exam
Preparation
Grading
Academic Integrity
 

Dates
Mo
08/ 28/ 06
405 Clark Hall
First laboratory
We 08/ 30/ 06 132 Rockefeller Hall
First lecture

10/ 07 - 10/ 10 No lab on 10/09 and 10/10
Fall break
Tu
11/ 28/ 06 405 Clark Hall Last laboratory
We
11/ 29/ 06
132 Rockefeller Hall
Last lecture


127 Rockefeller Hall
Final exam
Mo 13:25 - 16:25 405 Clark Hall
Laboratory
Tu
13:25 - 16:25 405 Clark Hall
Laboratory
We
12:20 - 13:10 132 Rockefeller Hall
Lecture

Before new experiment

Lab reports due
Tu 12:00-13:20 118 Newman Lab Office hours, Prof. Hoffstaetter


Newman Lab Office hours, TA


Literature

Required:
Related material:

Lab Description

The following 6 subjects will be covered. A laboratory report has to be produced for each one of them.

1) Reflection and Refraction

To work on during 08/28/06-09/12/06: Erik & Pui @ table 1, Yang & Se @ table 2, Abbie & John @ table 3
To work on during 09/18/06-09/26/06: Martin & Soham @ table 4, Amy & Avtar @ table 5, Jacqueline & Pisut @ table 6

2) Polarized Light

To work on during 08/28/06-09/12/06: Pisut & Martin @ table 4, Soham & Amy @ table 5, Avtar & Jacqueline @ table 6
To work on during 09/18/06-09/26/06: John & Erik @ table 1, Pui & Yang @ table 2, Se & Abbie @ table 3

3) Geometrical Optics

To work on during 10/02/06-10/17/06: Martin & Pui @ table 1, Amy & Se @ table 2, Jacqueline & John @ table 3
To work on during 10/23/06-10/31/06: Erik & Soham @ table 4, Yang & Avtar @ table 5, Abbie & Pisut @ table 6

4) Interference

To work on during 10/02/06-10/17/06: Pisut & Erik @ table 4, Soham & Yang @ table 5, Avtar & Abbie @ table 6
To work on during 10/23/06-10/31/06: John & Martin @ table 1, Pui & Amy @ table 2, Se & Jacqueline @ table 3

5) Fresnel and Fraunhofer Diffraction

To work on during 11/06/06-11/14/06: Pisut & John @ table 1, Soham & Pui @ table 2, Avtar & Se @ table 3
To work on during 11/20/06-11/28/06: Martin & Erik @ table 4, Amy & Yang @ table 5, Jacqueline & Abbie @ table 6

6) Fourier Optics

To work on during 11/06/06-11/14/06: Abbie & Martin @ table 4, Erik & Amy @ table 5, Yang & Jacqueline @ table 6
To work on during 11/20/06-11/28/06: Se & Pisut @ table 1, John & Soham @ table 2, Pui & Avtar @ table 3

08/28/2006: 1st lab session - Today you will identify the provided equipment, complete the equipment inventory, and align the laser on your optical bench. The lab benches with odd numbers (1,3,5) will start setting up experiment 1. The others will set up experiment 2.
08/29/2006: 2st lab session - Most of you made good progress on labs 1 or 2. I saw some loose papers in stead of log books. Please buy good notebooks to keep you log.

Lab report

Each lab report has to contain:
1) Description of goal of the experiment
2) Description of the experiment and how the experiment achieves this goal
3) Description of error analysis
4) Your data
5) Your evaluation
6) Your error analysis
7) An analysis on how the accuracy could be improved

Quizes and Final Exam

Before you can start your experiment, you have to read the relevant sections of this manual and of the textbook by Hecht. Then you have to pass a short oral quiz in the laboratory. Furthermore you must hand in the report of your previous experiment. The final exam covers the material that was covered in class as well as the experiments.

Auxiliary material for the final exam

1. One handwritten page of formulas
2. No calculators, no computers
3. No lab manual
4. No books
5. No cell phones

Preparation

Prerequisite physics courses at Cornell: Physics 214 or Physics 218

List of math courses at Cornell.
Mathematical topics that will be useful for this laboratory: Complex functions, Taylor Series, Vectors, Fourier Series, Linear algebra.

Grading

The laboratory reports are due before a new experiment can be started. They account for 85% of the grade. The lab reports are due one week after the completion of the experiment. The grade of unexcused late reports will be reduced by 10% per week. The final exam is worth 15%.

Academic integrity

Academic Integrity is mandatory.

Basic principle: Do not pretend that the work or ideas of others are your own.
1) You may discuss the experiments with others.
2) You have to credit documents or people if you have used their ideas.
3) You may not copy equations, derivations, or text from other laboratory reports.


Send comments to G. H. Hoffstaetter

Last Update: 08-22-2006