Improvement of Undergraduate Optics Instruction

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The project goal is to improve optics laboratory instruction at several levels ranging from a sophomore-level holography laboratory course to senior research projects. This is being accomplished by the addition of a versatile rapid holographic camera and by introducing lasers of a second color. At present only red helium-neon gas lasers are available. The affected courses are Holography Laboratory and Lasers, taken by students interested in applied physics, science education and industrial technology; Optics with Laboratory, taken principally by physics majors with a special interest in modern optics and by science education and physics education graduate students; and Undergraduate Research in Physics. The major equipment item purchased as a result of the grant is a thermoplastic recorder, which can he thought of as an instant holographic camera. This instrument is being used to monitor microscopic distortions of objects in real time, by observing a pattern of light and dark fringes these are seen through a hologram when the object is moved. This instrument can be used for demonstrations, for semi-quantitative measurements of microscopic displacements at the intermediate level, and for advanced undergraduate research projects. In particular a novel holographically-based method of measuring surface roughness is being explored. This method of measuring surface roughness, developed by the project director working with previous undergraduate physics majors is based on monitoring laser light scattered from the rough surface. The second major item is a blue argon-ion laser. This laser permits the wavelength dependence of scattered and diffracted light to be studied at the intermediate and advanced level. Also, two-color display holography, of wide interest to students, is also possible.