About Lab

In the Optics Laboratory (PHY224A), students explore fundamental wave optical phenomena – propagation, reflection, polarization, interference and diffraction.   Here, students assemble and build their experimental setups on an optical breadboard from basic optomechanical components and individual optical elements, similar to how it is done in research labs throughout the world. This allows significant improvisation by the student while setting up the experiment. Another defining feature of this lab is that the lab sessions run in parallel with classroom lectures. This way, once the students are taught a concept in the classroom, they perform an experiment based on this concept the same week.

The standard set of experiments exposes students to characterizing laser beams, manipulating linear and circular polarization, understanding birefringence and optical activity, exploring interference and diffraction, and building and aligning interferometers and using them for precise length measurements. These experiments utilize a Helium Neon laser as a light source and a photodiode as a detector. In addition to these experiments, the students also undertake a longer experimental project, which they design and implement using the instruments available in the lab. For this purpose, lasers of several wavelengths, cameras, and state-of-the-art electronic test and measurement equipment are available in the lab.