An Introduction to Practical Laboratory Optics

This book is aimed at students taking practical laboratory courses in experimental optics to help them understand the components within optical instruments.

J. F. James (Author)

9781107050549, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 September 2014

196 pages, 80 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.4 cm, 0.44 kg

'James writes so well and includes so many personal and historical lessons learned that I had difficulty putting this book down … It is perfect for a pre-job-interview review of hands-on optics. When you get to the last page you will still be hungry for more, which makes the three appendices even more welcome. [The book] is excellent and the best one I have reviewed this decade.' George Fischer, Optics and Photonics News

Aimed at students taking laboratory courses in experimental optics, this book introduces readers to optical instruments and their uses. The book explains the basic operation of lenses, mirrors, telescopes in the laboratory and under field conditions, how to use optical instruments to their maximum potential and how to keep them in working order. It gives an account of the laws of geometrical optics which govern the design, layout and working of optical instruments. The book describes the interactions of polarised light with matter and the instruments and devices derived from this, and discusses the choice of spectrometers and detectors for various spectral regions, with particular attention to CCD cameras. The emphasis throughout is on description, with mathematical precision confined to the appendices, which explain the ray transfer matrix and outline the Seidel theory of optical aberrations. The appendices also introduce Fourier methods in optics and Fourier transform infra-red spectrometry.

1. Introduction: centred optical systems
2. Telescopes and binoculars
3. Eyepieces, eyes and colour
4. Cameras and camera lenses
5. The scientific CCD camera
6. Spectrometry
7. Interferometers and their uses
8. Electro-optical effects and their uses
9. Microscopes and projectors
10. Siderostats and coelostats
11. The detection and measurement of radiation
12. Practicalities
Further reading
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Optical physics [PHJ], Physics [PH], Astronomy, space & time [PG], Mathematics & science [P]