Physiological Optics: Physical Optics (BSPO613)

To give a solid theoretical underpinning of geometrical and physical optics. In terms of geometrical optics, the course spans the full range of refractive devices from simple thin lenses to reduced (Gauss) systems, and is taught in terms of unifying vergence equations. A similar approach is taken with reflecting surfaces. In the physical optics session, the wave and particulate theories of the nature of light are used to explain a variety of physical phenomena. In the final lectures of the course, the optical principles discussed earlier in the course are used to underpin an overview of several modern medical imaging technologies that are relevant to optometric practice in the 21st Century.