Optics

Foundational optics overview — transmission, reflection, refraction, absorption, diffraction, scattering, Snell's law, Fresnel equations, surface quality, and surface figure.

Centralized reference for optical substrate and bulk materials — glasses, crystals, metals, polymers. Transmission ranges, refractive indices, thermal and mechanical properties.

Optical windows, flats, and protective covers — parallelism, transmitted wavefront, wedge angle, and material selection by wavelength and environment.

Complete lens education — types, geometry, refraction, thin/thick lens theory, Gaussian beam propagation, materials, aberrations, coatings, and selection.

Flat and curved mirrors — including parabolic and off-axis parabolic. Substrates, coatings, surface quality, application selection.

Optical filters — absorptive, reflective/dichroic, bandpass, notch, edge (longpass/shortpass), ND. Application-specific selection for spectroscopy, imaging, and laser systems.

Beam splitting and combining optics — plate, cube, pellicle, and dichroic beamsplitters. Polarizing vs. non-polarizing, splitting ratio specs, and application selection.

Multi-element systems — beam expanders (Galilean, Keplerian), objectives, microscope optics, relay systems, telescopes.

Thin-film optical coatings — AR, HR, dichroic, metallic, and specialty. Material properties, hardness, durability, and specification.

Polarization as a fundamental property of light and the components that control it — polarizer types, waveplates, Faraday isolators, and measurement.

Gratings, prisms, and diffractive elements — diffraction theory, grating types, prism dispersion, and spectroscopy/wavelength separation applications.

Understanding and calculating LIDT for coatings and bulk materials. Critical crossover connecting to CW, pulsed, ultrafast, coatings, and materials.

Optical fiber types, coupling, connectors, and free-space-to-fiber interfacing — the practical fiber knowledge needed for lab photonics.