Optics, Photonics & Laser

Classical & Physical Optics

Classical optics is divided into two main branches: geometrical (or ray) optics and physical (or wave) optics. In geometrical optics, light is considered to travel in straight lines, while in physical optics, light is considered as an electromagnetic wave. Physical optics  is the study of the wave properties of light, which may be roughly grouped into three categories: interference, diffraction, and polarization And In Physical optics, light is considered to propagate as a wave. This model predicts phenomena such as interference and diffraction which are not explained by geometric optics. The speed of light waves in air is approximately 3.0×108 m/s (exactly 299,792,458 m/s in vacuum).