Lahore University of Management Sciences

PHY211 Waves and Optics

Instructor
Room No.
Office Hours
Email
Telephone
Secretary/TA
TA Office Hours
Course URL (if any)

Fall 2012-13

Imran Younus
TBA
Imran.younus@lums.edu.pk
042 3560 8395

Course Basics
Credit Hours
Lecture(s)
Recitation (per week)
Lab (if any ) per week
Tutorial (per week)

Course Distribution
Core
Elective
Open for Student Category
Closed for Student Category

4
Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week
Nbr of Rec (s) Per
Week
Nbr of Session(s) Per
Week
Nbr of Tut(s) Per
Week

Duration
Duration

100 min each

Duration
Duration

Physics

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The first part of this course deals with mechanical vibrations and waves. Different phenomena such as superposition of vibrations, damped and
forced vibrations etc. are explored for increasingly complex mechanical systems. Mechanical waves are introduced and the concepts of
dispersion, reflection and refraction are described. The second part of the course is concerned with electromagnetic waves traveling at optical
wavelengths. Propagation of these waves and their behavior at interfaces is explored. Interference is described as the superposition of two or
more mutually coherent optical waves leading to instruments called interferometers. Finally, the effect of optical waves passing through different
apertures is described in terms of the far-field or Fraunhofer diffraction patterns.
COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)

Electricity and Magnetism

COURSE OBJECTIVES

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Learning Outcomes

Grading Breakup and Policy

Assignment(s):
Home Work: 20%
Quiz(s):
Class Participation:
Attendance:
Midterm Examination: 40%
Project:
Final Examination: 40%

Examination Detail

Midterm
Exam

Yes/No: Yes
Combine Separate: N/A
Duration: 3 hous
Preferred Date:
Exam Specifications: close book/notes.

Final Exam

Yes/No: Yes
Combine Separate: N/A
Duration: 3 hours
Exam Specifications: close book/notes.

COURSE OVERVIEW
Week/
Lecture/
Topics
Module
Simple Harmonic Motion, Superposition of

Vibrations
Simple and compound pendulums, Damped
Vibrations, Forced Vibrations, Resonance,

Coupled oscillators
Continuous systems; Vibrations on a string,

Normal modes, Fourier Analysis

Waves; Wave motion, Superposition of Waves,
Dispersion, phase and group velocities, Energy

in a mechanical wave, Reflection and

Transmission
Maxwells Equations, Wave Equation, Plane
Waves, Spherical Waves, Polarization, Poynting

Theorem
Review and Mid-term

EM Wave Propagation, Boundary conditions,

Reflection and transmission of plane waves at

normal and oblique incidence, Snells Law,

Fresnel equations

Recommended
Readings

Objectives/
Application

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Interference; Two-beam interference, thin-film

interference, Newtons rings, multiple beam
interference, Michelson interferometer, FabryPerot interferometer
Fraunhofer Diffraction; Single slit diffraction,
Double slit diffraction, Diffraction Grating,
Rectangular and Circular Apertures, Fourier
Optics
Final Exam

Textbook(s)/Supplementary Readings

TBA