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Metamaterials are beginning to transform optics and microwave technology thanks to their versatile properties that, in many cases, can be tailored according to practical needs and desires. Although metamaterials are surely not the answer to…
Light is a major carrier of information about the world around us, from the microcosmos to the macrocosmos. The present methods of detection are sensitive both to robust features, such as intensity, or polarization, and to more subtle…
Molecules are ubiquitous in natural phenomena and man-made products, but their use in quantum optical applications has been hampered by incoherent internal vibrations and other phononic interactions with their environment. We have now…
Under ray-optical light transport, the classical ray serves as a linear and local "point query" of light's behaviour. Linearity and locality are crucial to the formulation of sophisticated path tracing and sampling techniques, that enable…
We introduce a new type of lens that focuses a plane wave into a spherical one, where light comes from all directions. Our method also suggests the design of ideal optical tweezers or, in the reverse direction, photo-detection of nearly all…
Along with weaving together observations, experiments, and theoretical constructs into a coherent mesh of understanding of the world around us, physics over its past five centuries has continuously refined the base concepts on which the…
Newton's mechanical revolution unifies the motion of planets in the sky and falling of apple on earth. Maxwell's electromagnetic revolution unifies electricity, magnetism, and light. Einstein's relativity revolution unifies space with time,…
In its broadest sense the term bent wave rays hints at light or electromagnetic waves bending in a strong gravitational field or in their progress through a transparent medium of nonuniform index of refraction. However, there are instances…
Wave-particle duality is one of the fundamental properties of matter and at the same time, one of the mysteries of modern physics. In this paper, we propose and analyze a new interpretation of the wave-particle duality, and propose a new…
Following a brief review on the history and the current development of fiber optics, the significance of teaching fiber optics for science and non-science major college students is addressed. Several experimental demonstrations designed to…
Feynman's laws of quantum dynamics are concisely stated, discussed in comparison with other formulations of quantum mechanics and applied to selected problems in the physical optics of photons and massive particles as well as flavour…
Most of us will have at some time thrown a pebble into water, and watched the ripples spread outwards and fade away. But now there is a way to reverse the process, and make those ripples turn around and reconverge again, ... and again, and…
We briefly review the ideas that have shaped modern optics and have led to various applications of light ranging from spectroscopy to astrophysics, and street lights to quantum communication. The review is primarily focused on the modern…
Traditionally, Electromagnetism is taught following the chronological development of the matter. The final product of this path is a presentation of Electromagnetism realized by adding one layer over another with the risk of transferring…
We are used to describe the detection of light in terms of particles and its propagation from the source to the detection, by waves. For instance, the slowing down of light in a transparent medium is always explained within the…
In classical mechanics matter and fields are completely separated. Matter interacts with fields. For particle physicists this is not the case. Both matter and fields are represented by particles. Fundamental interactions are mediated by…
Assessments are usually thought of as ways for instructors to get information from students. In this work, we flip this perspective and explore how assessments communicate information to students. Specifically, we consider how assessments…
Physics faculty consider the photoelectric effect important, but many erroneously believe it is easy for students to understand. We have developed curriculum on this topic including an interactive computer simulation, interactive lectures…
Quantum optics is a field of research based on the quantum theory of light. Here, we show that the classical theory of light can be equally effective in explaining a cornerstone of quantum optics: the quantization of the free radiation…
It is frequently assumed that the fundamental purpose of vision is to extract information from light and process it in the brain in order to gain knowledge about environmental objects. Treating vision as an information-driven process has…