Basic Optics for Engineers

Level: Introductory
Length: 4.6 hours
Format: Online

Intended Audience:
This course introduces each of the following basic areas of optics, from an engineering point of view: geometrical optics, image quality, flux transfer, sources, detectors, and lasers. Basic calculations and concepts are emphasized.

Description:
This class is intended for engineers, technicians, and managers who need to understand and apply basic optics concepts in their work. The basics in each of the areas are covered, and are intended for those with little or no prior background in optics, or for those who need a fundamental refresher course.

Learning Outcomes:

- compute the following image properties: size, location, fidelity, brightness

- estimate diffraction-limited imaging performance

- explain optical diagrams

- describe the factors that affect flux transfer efficiency, and their quantitative description

- compute the spectral distribution of a source

- describe the difference between photon and thermal detectors

- calculate the signal to noise performance of a sensor (D* and noise equivalent power)

- differentiate between sensitivity and responsivity

- explain the main factors of laser beams: monochromaticity, collimation, and propagation

Instructor(s):
Glenn Boreman served as the 2017 President of SPIE, and since 2011 is Chair of the Department of Physics & Optical Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He received the BS in Optics from the University of Rochester, and the PhD in Optics from the University of Arizona. From 1984 to 2011 he was on the faculty of the University of Central Florida. He has supervised 27 PhD students to completion. Prof. Boreman is coauthor of the graduate textbooks "Infrared Detectors and Systems" and "Infrared Antennas and Resonant Structures," and author of "Modulation Transfer Function in Optical & Electro-Optical Systems" and "Basic Electro-Optics for Electrical Engineers." He has published more than 200 journal articles in the areas of infrared sensors and materials, optics of random media, and image-quality assessment. He is a fellow of SPIE, IEEE, OSA, and the Military Sensing Symposium.

Menelaos Poutous is an Assoc. Professor of Interdisciplinary Optics in the Department of Physics & Optical Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He previously held a Principal Development Engineer’s position at Digital Optics Corporation, and before that, he was Lecturer with the Department of Physics at Emory University. He received his Doctorate from the School of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA. He has been teaching Optics undergraduate and graduate courses of all levels for the last 25 years. His research interests are in spectroscopy, diffractive micro-optical elements, photo-lithographic fabrication processes, micro-optics in laser cavities and artificial optical surfaces. He is a senior member of SPIE.