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Two methods of refractometry in reflected light from optical surface of samples are considered and studied experimentally. Methods are grounded on results of Fresnel theory of concerning light reflectivity at near normal incidence and…
We present total and specular reflectance measurements of various materials that are commonly (and uncommonly) used to provide baffling and/or to minimize the effect of stray light in optical systems. More specifically, we investigate the…
Dynamic optical sensors, as those based on the reflectivity of isotropic dielectrical interfaces, can be useful for measuring small changes in the refractive index of fluid media. Exact and approximated explicit formulas for their…
We introduce some new experiments where light diffraction is demonstrated with simple elements: white light diffraction with a coin, construction of a diffractive lens by holography, diffraction properties in digital discs and an…
The five-layer nanorod-mediated surface plasmon sensor with inhomogeneous liquid crystal layer was theoretically investigated. The reflectance as the function of the incident angle was calculated at different voltages applied to the liquid…
In this work we present a refractive index sensor based on the leaky radiation of a microfiber. The 5.3um diameter microfiber is fabricated by drawing a commercial optical fiber. When the microfiber is immersed into a liquid with larger…
A small tabletop experiment for a direct measurement of the speed of light to an accuracy of few percent is described. The experiment is accessible to a wide spectrum of undergraduate students, in particular to students not majoring in…
A novel method is proposed to measure the refractive indices (RIs) of the materials of different transparent solid state media. To exploit the advantage of non-contact measurement laser beam interferometry is used as an effective technique…
In this paper, we demonstrate a low-cost method to measure the speed of light. It uses instruments which are readily available in any undergraduate laboratory in a developing country and some components which are inexpensive. The method is…
We present an approach for the study and design of reflectors with rotational or translational symmetry that redirect light from a point source into any desired radiant intensity distribution. This method is based on a simple conformal map…
A microwave lens with highly reduced reflectance, as compared to conventional dielectric lenses, is proposed. The lens is based on two-dimensional or three-dimensional transmission-line networks that can be designed to have an effective…
We have developed a method to measure the mirror reflectivity of telescopes. While it is relatively easy to measure the local reflectivity of the mirror material, it is not so straightforward to measure the amount of light that it focuses…
Although the observation of optical spectra is common practice in physics classes, students are usually limited to a passive, qualitative observation of nice colours. This article discusses a diffraction-based spectrometer that allows…
Optical Doppler shift demonstration experiments are not a simple task since the light source cannot usually be moved in a sufficiently smooth and uniform manner to keep the level of noise well below of that of the signal. For that reason…
Optical coatings are widespread in everyday life, from camera lenses to glasses, to complex optics experiments. A simple, reliable device that can quickly and inexpensively analyze optical coatings is a valuable laboratory tool. Such a…
Reflectometry is a technique that uses the light reflected by a sample to determine properties of the sample. Interferometric reflectometry uses interference between two beams, one of which is incident on ---and reflected back by--- a…
We propose an experiment using a conventional optical telescope to determine whether aberration of starlight results from special relativistic effects external to a measurement sensor or from optical effects within a sensor. The proposed…
The paper describes a method for measuring the thermal diffusivity of materials having a high thermal conductivity. The apparatus is rather simple and low-cost, being therefore suitable in a laboratory for undergraduate students of…
A refractometry taking measuring of Brewster angles for birefringent materials is proposed. The technique is based on the angular scanning of the reflected power of p-polarized light and the determination of the two specific minimums at the…
A smartphone camera can be used for measuring the width and distance of an object by taking its photograph. The focal length of the camera lens can be determined very accurately by finding the image width of an object on the camera sensor…