Department of Physics, Weber State University

PHYS 3190, Applied Optics Lab

Experiment #1

Color
Revised 8/26/09

Goals:
Experiment with additive and subtractive color. Observe how reflective colors work. Explore how dispersive prisms work.

Equipment:
Lens tissue Red Green Blue (RGB) LED light source with diffuser insert Three filters - red, green, blue (with green strip) Various filters in envelope Colored felt pieces Colored paper strips 75 mm focal length lens Optical rail and mounts Slit target Acrylic rhombus prism Glass prism

Handling and Safety Notes:

Always treat the optical surfaces of lens, mirrors, filters, etc. with great care. Never touch the optical surfaces. You can use lens tissues to hold the lenses when you are mounting them in holders or any other time you might need to touch them. Avoid touching the front surface of mirrors with anything, including tissue. Skin oils are very detrimental to optical components. Handle all optical components by their edges. Handle all components over a table surface and do not lift them any higher off the table than necessary just in case you should fumble something.

Procedure:
Adding Colors Place the RGB light source box (see Figure 1) in front of a white screen. Experiment with the box and become familiar with the controls. Play with various amounts of red, green and blue light. Or, use white light and color filters. Questions 1: What do you need to do to get white light? Purple? Yellow? Azure? Subtracting Colors Illuminate your work area with the white desk lamp. Look at the light source through the filters one at a time. No great surprise, the red filter Figure 1. The RGB Light Source.
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looks red, etc. Now look at the light through two filters, starting with red and blue. (Or blue and red, does the order matter?) Do this with the other filters. Appendix II contains the spectral transmission of your filters and the spectral output of the lamp. Notice that some of the curves overlap and some dont. Question 2: What happens when you look at the white light source through the red and blue filters? Explain. Question 3: What happens when you look at the white light source through the red and green filters? Explain. Question 4: What happens when you look at the white light source through the green and blue filters? Explain. Use the filters to look at the RGB light source. Use the various filters to view the red, green and blue sources one at a time. Illuminating Colors You have a collection of colored felt and paper strips that you will view and illuminate through the color filters. Illuminate the colored targets (the felt and paper) with white light from the RGB light source. Hold the filters close to your eye one at a time and view the colored targets. Think carefully about the colors that are being reflected by the target and the color of the filter you are viewing the target through. Next, change the color of the light source so you can illuminate the color targets with red, green then blue light. Again think about what you are seeing and why. In particular, some of the colors dont behave well. That is, when you view a blue sheet with green light you dont see black paper. Why is that? (Massive hint: Think about the data in the appendix and think about the purity of the color in the dyes used to create the color paper and felt.) Fun with Prisms and Dispersion According to Snells Law, n1 sin 1 = n2 sin 2 the angle of refraction depends on the angle of incidence and the index of refraction of the material. Because the index of refraction for light varies with the frequency of the light, white light which enters the material at a given angle of incidence will separate out into its component colors as each frequency is bent a different amount. The rhombus is made of Acrylic for which the index of refraction is listed in Appendix I. Notice that in general, for visible light, the index of refraction for Acrylic increases with increasing frequency. The wavelength (and thus frequency) dependence of the index of refraction is known as dispersion. It is the phenomena of dispersion in water droplets that causes rainbows. Set up the optical system shown in Figure 2. Adjust the position of the lens such that the light coming out from it is collimated (i.e., parallel
2009, John E. Sohl

Figure 2. Setup to create a single ray of light.

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rays of light creating a spot on the screen that is approximately the same size regardless of the screen location. Next, insert the slit so that you now have a narrow slit of light falling on the screen. Position the rhombus as shown in Figure 3. The triangular end of the rhombus is used as a prism in this experiment. Keep the ray near the point of the rhombus for maximum transmission of the light. Rotate the rhombus until the angle of the emerging rays are as large as possible and the ray separates into colors. Mess around with the color balance of the ray Figure 3. Setup for viewing dispersion. going into the rhombus. The result should be pretty predictable. Question 5: With white light going in, do the colored rays emerge from the rhombus parallel to each other? You may need to adjust the position of the rhombus. You should experiment some with the rhombus doing things like flipping it over and trying to send the light in various sides and corners. You should come to an understanding of why the acute angle corner is used for prisms. Now try the glass prism and compare it to the acrylic rhombus. Again, play with it some and get a feel for how it works. Question 6: For the two prisms (glass and acrylic) which separates the colors better? I.e., which device has the greatest dispersion?

Appendix I. Index of refraction for acrylic. Vacuum Wavelength (nm) 486 (blue) 589 (yellowish green) 651 (red) Index of Refraction 1.497 1.491 1.489

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PHYS 3190, Color

Appendix II. Light curves for the filters and light source.

The blue, green and red elements of the RGB LED are shown. Relative intensities are arbitrary. The two white LEDs are the broad line that goes across the visible spectrum.
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