Optics: The Science of light imaging

Chapter 6

PHYS 3616E, Winter 2017 Dr. Bassam Aharmim

1) Introduction
In Laser medicine, the channeling of light through a transparent conduit is of great
importance.

This technique (fiber optics. the subject of part 2 of this course) is routinely used by
physicians to examine regions of the heart, stomach, and lungs.

Some of the fibers function as light pipes, transporting light from an external source to
illuminate inaccessible areas internally.

Other fibers are used for imaging (they return the image).

Light does not flow like a fluid, curving around as it travels.

When light encounters an obstacle, it is transmitted, reflected or absorbed.

Transmitted light continues to travel into the new medium (often with a direction different
from the original ray).

Reflected rays rebound from the interface like a ball bouncing off a wall.

If the light is absorbed, some of its energy is transferred to the new medium, resulting in a
gradual decrease of the intensity of the incident light along its pathway.

The working of optical devices, from our eyes to giant telescopes and sensitive
microscopes, depends on light going in straight lines.
In medicine, it is nice to be able to pipe light around corners and look into inaccessible
places.

If we shine light down one and of a long, twisted tube, virtually no light comes out the other
end.
This is because the light rays simply hit and
reflect from the sides of the tube.

At each reflection, part of the light is absorbed and part is reflected.

After bouncing several times off of the tube's sides, the light is entirely absorbed,
and none is left to shine through to the other end.

A simple tube won't suffice for guiding light into the body.

It is just as impossible to view objects through an ordinary twisting tube as to get

illumination from one end to another.

Optics gives us a method for solving this problem : Total internal reflection

In this chapter, we will review some geometrical optics topics that are necessary for
understanding the physics behind fiber optics.
2) Refractive index
The speed of light in vacuum (c=3 108 m/s) is considered the universal speed limit (nothing
travels faster).

Light always travels more slowly through transparent material that through vacuum.

The speed difference for a material is measured by a number called the refractive index n.
s p e e d o f lig h t in v a c u u m c
n  
s p e e d o f lig h t in a m e d iu m v

For normal optical materials, the refractive index is greater than 1.0 (since v is always less
than c)

In practice, the refractive index is measured by comparing the speed of light in a material to
the speed of light in air

The index of refraction for common transparent materials are listed in the table bellow.
As light travels from one medium to another, the frequency of the
light does not change (the wavelength does)
v  f v 1  f1 1 v1 c / n 1 n 2
  
f1  f2  f v 2  f 2 2 v2 c / n 2 n1

1n 1   2n 2

If medium 1 is vacuum (or air), then n1=1 The index of refraction

of any medium can be expressed as the ratio

0
n 
n

Where  the wavelength of light in vacuum nand is the

wavelength of light in the medium whose index of
refraction is n.

Example 6-1. Light of wavelength 589 nm in vacuum passes through a piece of fused quartz whose
index of refraction is (n=1.458)
a) find the speed of light in quartz
b) what is the wavelength of this light in quartz?
c) find the frequency of the light passing through the quartz.
3) Reflecting and bending light

When a ray of light is reflected at an interface

dividing two optical media, the reflected ray
remains within the plane of incidence and

i   r

When a ray of light is refracted at an interface

dividing two transparent media, the
transmitted ray remains within the plane of
incidence and
n i sin θ i= n t sin θ t Snell's Law

Refracted rays ( rays 1 and 2 in the front figure)

bend away from the normal when n2<n1
according to Snell’s law.
The Snell’s law also requires that ray 3 incident
normal to the surface (1=0) be transmitted
without change in direction.
If n2>n1, the refracted rays would bend toward
the normal.
 Example 6-2. A beam of light of wavelength 550 nm traveling in air is incident on a slab of transparent
material. The incident beam makes an angle of 40 with the normal, and the refracted beam makes an
angle of 26 with the normal.
a) Find the index of refraction of the material
b) What is the wavelength of the light in the material?

Example 6-3. A light ray traveling through air is incident on a smooth, flat slab of crown glass (n=1.52)
at an angle of 30 to the normal. Find the angle of refraction.

4) Total internal reflection

An interesting effect called total internal reflection can occur when light attempts to move
from a medium having a high index of refraction to one having a lower index of
refraction.

Consider a light beam traveling in medium 1 and meeting boundary between medium 1 and
medium 2, where n1n2 (figure in next slide).

Various possible directions of the beam are indicated by rays 1 through 4 in the figure.
Rays from the object that make increasingly larger angles of incidence with the interface
must, by Snell’s law, refract at increasingly larger angles.

Note that the refracted rays are bent away from the normal because n1n2.
For rays 1 and 2 in the figure both refraction and reflection occur (the reflected rays are not
shown in the figure).
 1
2

A critical angle c is reached when the angle of refraction reaches  = 90° (ray 3 : the
refracted light move parallel to the boundary, and the reflected ray not shown).
n  n n 
s i n  c   2  s i n 9 0  2  c  s i n  1  2 
 n1  n1  n1 
For angles of incidence 1>c, the incident ray is entirely reflected at the boundary as
though it had struck a perfectly reflecting surface. (the incident ray experiences total
internal reflection).
Ray 4 in the figure shows this occurrence. (this ray, and all those like it, obey the law of
reflection, that is the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection)
Note that the phenomenon does not occur unless n1> n2
total internal reflection occurs only when light attempts to move from a medium of high
index of refraction to a medium of lower index of refraction.
Example 6-4. Determine the maximum angle m for which the light rays incident on the end of the pipe in
the figures bellow are subject to total internal reflection along the walls of the pipe. Assume the pipe has
an index of refraction of 1.36 and the outside medium is air.

Example 6-5. A light pipe consists of a central strand of material surrounded by an outer coating. The
interior portion of the pipe has an index of refraction of 1.60. If all rays striking the interior walls of the
pipe with incident angles greater than 59.5 are subject to total internal reflection, what is the index of
refraction of the coating?
5) Imaging by an optical system
The formation of images proceeds from a
direct application of Snell's law, since this is
the fundamental reason the rays of light have
new directions after passing through the
optical system.
For objects that generate their own light (a
flashlight or the sun) the optical system
intercepts rays of light emitted by the object.

For all other objects there must be a source of light nearby for illumination (the optical system
capture the object by the means of light reflected from its surface).
The optical system could include any number of reflecting and/or refracting surfaces, that
may alter the direction of rays leaving the object point O.
The optical system collects only a tiny fraction of the rays emitted or reflected from each
point of the surface of the object to form the optical image.
Images are always located by extending diverging rays back to a
point at which they intersect.
Images are located either at a point from which the rays of light
actually diverge or at a point from which they appear to diverge.
A real image is formed when light rays pass through and diverge
from the image point. (Real images can be displayed on screens).
A virtual image is formed when light rays do not pass through the
image point but only appear to diverge from that point. (Virtual
images cannot be displayed on screens).

Images Formed by Thin Lenses

Lenses are commonly used to form images by refraction.
Light passing through a lens experiences refraction at two surfaces.
The image formed by one refracting surface serves as the object for the second surface.
The lens has an index of refraction n and two spherical surfaces with radii of R1 and R2.

A thin lens is one whose thickness is small compared to the radii of curvature.
Lenses are used in optical instruments : Cameras, Telescopes, Microscopes
The relationship among the focal length, the object distance and the image
distance is the same as for a mirror.
1 1 1
 
p q ƒ
Because light can travel in either direction through a lens, each lens has two
focal points.
One focal point is for light passing in one direction through the lens and one is for
light traveling in the opposite direction.
Each focal point is located the same distance from the lens.

The parallel rays pass through the lens and

converge at the focal point.
The parallel rays can come from the left or right of
the lens.

The parallel rays diverge after passing through

the diverging lens.
The focal point is the point where the rays
appear to have originated.
Magnification of Images Through a Thin
Lens
The image is often not the same size as the original object.
Depending upon the position of the object and the focal length of the optical system, the
image formed can be larger or smaller than the original object.
The ratio of the image's size, hi, to that of the original object, ho, is called the magnification

h' q
M 
h p
When M is positive, the image is upright and on the same side of the lens as the object.
When M is negative, the image is inverted and on the side of the lens opposite the object.

Example 6-6. A 10 cm-high object is positioned 20.0 cm to the left of a diverging lens with focal length of
32.0 cm.

Determine the location, nature (real or virtual) orientation (upright or inverted) and size of the image.
Graphical methods of locating images make use of 3 key rays
The 3 rays leaving the tip of the object change direction due to refraction at optical system
interfaces. The redirected rays are used to locate the image.
Ray 1: passing through the center of the optical system, emerges unaltered
Ray 2: parallel to the optical axis, passes through the right focal point of the optical
system.
Ray 3: passing through the left focal point of the optical system, emerges parallel to the axis

All rays emitted from the same point on the original object that passes through the optical
system are also focused at the same point as these 3 particular rays.
Combinations of Thin Lenses
The image formed by the first lens is located as though the second lens were not present.
Then a ray diagram is drawn for the second lens.
The image of the first lens is treated as the object of the second lens.
The image formed by the second lens is the final image of the system.
If the image formed by the first lens lies on the back side of the second lens, then the
image is treated as a virtual object for the second lens. (p will be negative)
The same procedure can be extended to a system of three or more lenses.
The overall magnification is the product of the magnification of the separate lenses.

1 1 1
For the combination of two lenses  
ƒ ƒ1 ƒ 2
Two thin lenses in contact with each other are equivalent to a single thin lens having a focal
length given by the above equation.
Example 6-7. Find and describe the intermediate and final images produced by a two-element train of a
convex lens (f1=15 cm) and a concave lens (f2=15 cm) separated by 60 cm. The object is 25 cm from the
first lens.

Example 6-8. An object is placed 12.0 cm to the left of a diverging lens with a focal length of -6.00 cm. A
converging lens with a focal length of 12.0 cm is placed a distance d to the right of the diverging lens.
Find the distance d that corresponds to the final image at infinity.

This framework allows the construction of optical imaging systems used to create the images
formed in endoscopy