Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Geometric Optics
NPTEL Biophotonics 1
Geometric Optics
• Geometric optics treats light as a ray (consisting of
corpuscles) which obeys certain laws at interfaces
between two different materials.
NPTEL Biophotonics 2
Overview
• In this lecture you will learn,
• A historical perspective of optics
• Reflection and refraction
• Total internal reflection
• Planar and spherical optical elements
• Matrix method to analyze optical systems
• Some lens systems
NPTEL Biophotonics 3
Early Days of Optics
• Mirrors dating back to 2000 BC
– Pyramid of Sesostris Egypt
– Polished metal
– Metal on glass, alloys
• Burning glass (lens for focusing)
– Mentioned in Aristophanes 424 BC
• Refraction studies
– Plato’s Republic (380 BC)
– Ptolemy (100 AD)
• Straight line propagation of light, which is empirically
observed, would imply “rays” of light (particle model)
travelling obeying some laws. Hero of Alexandria (~ 40
AD) postulated shortest distance path for light rays
NPTEL Biophotonics 4
Early Days of Optics
• Roger Bacon (1215 – 1294) suggested using lenses for
correcting eyesight
– Concepts of refraction appreciated
– Focusing (or bending of light) in curved surfaces
• Tinkering with these lenses results in
– Lippershey invents refracting telescope (1608)
– Janssen invents compound microscope
– Kepler discovers small angle law of refraction (1611)
• Refracted angle is proportional to incident angle
– Snell discovers law of refraction (1621)
– Descartes puts it in terms of sine function (1637)
– Fermat proposed law of least time (shortest optical path) (1637)
• In essence a restatement of Hero’s postulate but with the
concept of refractive index
– Refractive index of a material identified as its capacity to bend light
NPTEL Biophotonics 5
Early Days of Optics
• Application of law of refraction leads to the design (and
improvement) of several optical components like lenses,
microscopes, telescopes etc.
NPTEL Biophotonics 6
Reflection and Shortest Optical Path
• Law of reflection P’
– Any point P has a conjugate point P’
O
– Q is the point of observation
– We can view the light ray as emerging from
the conjugate point P’ Q
N
– Shortest path is P’Q P
– From the geometry < PON = < NOQ
– i.e., incident and reflected angles are same
• Law of refraction
– Minimize d1 secθ1 + d 2 secθ 2
v1 v2
θ2 d1
O
Medium 1, v1
θ1 d2
P N
sin θ1 sin θ 2
=
v1 v2
NPTEL Biophotonics 9
Refractive Index and Speed of Light
• From the observation of light refracting through a glass
slab, one can conclude that light speed in glass must be
lower than the light speed in air to explain the shortest
path hypothesis in the context of the observed light path
c
• We define v = n1v1 = n2v2 = c
n
NPTEL Biophotonics 11
Total Internal Reflection
n1
NPTEL Biophotonics 12
Recap
• Law of reflection and refraction follow from the postulate
that light rays travel in the path that minimizes time of
flight
NPTEL Biophotonics 13
Recap
• Refractive index is related to speed of light in the
medium as
c
v =
n
NPTEL Biophotonics 14
Non-Planar Reflectors
y
y = ax2
f = 1/ 4a x
NPTEL Biophotonics 15
Spherical Mirrors
• However, spherical
mirrors are easier to
manufacture. In the
paraxial regime a spherical
mirror can be assumed to R/2
have a focus of f = R/2. C F
si
Paraxial approximation so
considers only rays that
are very close to the
normal, i.e. small angles
where sinθ = θ
NPTEL Biophotonics 16
Mirror Equation
• Using the geometrical
construction shown in the
diagram, tt can be shown
that
1 1 2
+ = C F
R/2
so si R si
so
NPTEL Biophotonics 17
Finite Objects: Magnification
• It can be shown that image
magnification is given by,
R
M =−
R + 2 so
C F
• Ray Diagrams si
so
• Virtual image from convex mirrors
• Use ray diagrams
• Sign convention:
• Convex: f is negative
• Concave: f is positive
NPTEL Biophotonics 18
Matrix Method for Geometric Optics Analysis
• Optical systems with several components are easily
analyzed by a matrix method. Here, a ray is
characterized by the position and the direction as shown
in the diagram.
y 2 M 11 M 12 y1 θ
=
θ 2 M 21 M 22 θ1 y
NPTEL Biophotonics 19
Matrix Method for Geometric Optics Analysis
• Transmission through a number of components, e.g a
lens with focal length f1, free space passage through
distance d1, reflection at a mirror followed by free space
passage through distance d2 and finally transmission
through a lens with focal length f2 can be analyzed by
simply multiplying the appropriate matrices in the right
order. For the train of optical elements given below, the
equivalent matrix will be
1 2 n-1 n
Mnet = Mn*Mn-1*....*M2*M1
NPTEL Biophotonics 20
Some Matrix Representations
• Consider translation in free space through distance d,
• Then y2 = y1+ d*θ1 and θ2 = θ1
• Therefore, the matrix representing translation will be
1 d
M =
0 1
NPTEL Biophotonics 21
Spherical Refraction
• The matrix representing spherical
n2
refraction as shown in diagram can be
found using simple geometry to be, n1
n1
R/2
1 0 C F
M = n1 − n2 n1
n2 R n2 so
NPTEL Biophotonics 22
Spherical Lenses
• Using the previous result for a t
single spherical interface
we can analyze the transmission
through a spherical lens as
shown in the diagram
R1 R2
• One has to multiply the matrix
for the spherical interface with
radius R2, followed by
translation through thickness t,
followed by spherical interface
with radius R1
NPTEL Biophotonics 23
Spherical Lens: Focal length
• Assuming refractive index to be same on both sides of
the lens, one can show that the equivalent matrix for the
lens is 1 0 where, 1 1 1
M = −1 1 = (n − 1) −
f R2 R1
f
NPTEL Biophotonics 24
Focusing by Thin Lens
• A consequence of our definition of f in the previous slide
is that f > 0 for bi-convex or plano-convex lenses and f < 0
for bi-concave or plano-concave lenses.
NPTEL Biophotonics 25
Diffraction Limit
• According to geometric optics all parallel rays are
focused on to a single point. But later on we will see that
the wave nature of light implies that this is not possible.
There is a limit of how much one can focus light. This
limit is called the diffraction limit.
NPTEL Biophotonics 26
Lens Equation
• Applying the transformation matrix 1 0
M = −1 1
f
P P’
u v
NPTEL Biophotonics 27
Lens Equation
• If point P is to be imaged on to point P’ all rays passing
through the lens must pass through P’ irrespective of θ.
This means y’ must be independent of q. By rearranging
the coefficient of q in the equation for y’, we get the
famous lens equation that links the object and image
distance with the focal length of the lens
1/f = 1/u + 1/v
P P’
u v
NPTEL Biophotonics 28
Lens Magnification
Also, we see that, image magnification = M = y’/y = -v/u.
By appropriate choice of f and u, one can create single
lens object magnifiers which are the basic stepping
stones to optical microscopy.
P P’
u v
NPTEL Biophotonics 29
Lens Systems
• Using the transformation matrix for lens derived in this
lecture, one can analyze lens systems consisting of
multiple lenses (convex or concave) with different focal
distances.
NPTEL Biophotonics 30
Summary
• As we saw in this lecture, geometric optics is the simple
application of laws of reflection and refraction and the
behavior of an optical component is a function of its
geometry (e.g. focusing of rays by a parabolic surface.
NPTEL Biophotonics 31