Optics Equipment for a Modern Physics Laboratory

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The teaching of optics will be combined with modern physics to prepare students for a technology that increasingly utilizes lasers and opto- electronics. This emphasis will be expanded in introductory courses, and a new, upper-level optics, light, and modern physics laboratory will be established. Experiments have been designed and successfully tested which combine laser light, modern physics, fiber optics, and computer interfacing. The department will purchase optical tables and lasers for making holographic and other interferometric measurements, optical fiber equipment for measuring the characteristics of light transmission, and equipment for computer interfacing. These experiments will be coordinated with experiments in modern physics for which little additional equipment is required. Simpler experiments using this equipment will be introduced into the introductory courses. The treatment of optics as a component of modern physics will increase the students' understanding of optical phenomena, especially those involving quantum mechanical concepts, and prepare them for a technology that uses electronics to interface lasers.