MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse materialsMIT 2.71 · Spring 2009

Optics

Subjects: Mechanical Engineering · Physics · Quantum Mechanics

Art: Frederick Collins, Collins steam engine drawing, 1918 · Public domain

Instructors: Prof. George Barbastathis, Prof. Colin Sheppard, Dr. Se Baek Oh
Term: Spring 2009
Level: Undergraduate, Graduate
What's inside: 29 videos · 7 exams · 9 solutions · 94 other files · 6 web pages
Materials open: Videos here · files on MIT OCW

Other versions of this course

2.71 · Spring 2014 · Study here
2.71 · Spring 2009 · Study here (this version)

Start here

Start course: Lecture 1: Course organization; introduction to optics Find a topic

Progress is saved in this browser.

Export or import progress

About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 2.71 Optics, Spring 2009, Prof. George Barbastathis, Prof. Colin Sheppard, Dr. Se Baek Oh — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

Materials are grouped the way MIT organized them. A verified, course-wide order has not been established here.

Has MIT solutions 9 files in this course are named by MIT as solutions.

Before you start

Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.

This course’s cited books, in our reading lists: Optics · Fundamentals of Photonics · Introduction to Fourier Optics · Modern Optical Engineering

How this course was organized

What's here, and what isn't

MIT's own materials here did not support a verified, course-wide order, so they are grouped by section instead.

Not included here

2 items from the source could not be safely included:

MIT's page format for this item wasn't recognized clearly enough to place it safely.
Referenced in a table, but without MIT's own verified order, so it isn't used to claim a sequence.

Materials by section

Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.

Lecture Slides

23 files

Assignments

34 files

Projects

Exams

18 files

Related Resources

8 images

Other materials from this course

12 files

23 video transcripts

29 images

MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. George Barbastathis, Prof. Colin Sheppard, Dr. Se Baek Oh, 2.71 Optics, Spring 2009.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Spring 2009 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

Organized by RedLectern, independent of MIT and not endorsed by MIT.

Per-resource rights are recorded on each resource; All-Rights-Reserved items are link-only, never mirrored.

Optics

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Not included here

Materials by section

Lecture Slides

Assignments

Projects

Exams

Related Resources

Other materials from this course

Lecture 1: Course organization; introduction to optics

Lecture 2: Reflection and refraction; prisms, waveguides, and dispersion

Lecture 3: Focusing, imaging, and the paraxial approximation

Lecture 4: Sign conventions; thin lenses; real and virtual images

Lecture 5: Thick lenses; the composite lens; the eye

Lecture 6: Terms: apertures, stops, pupils, and windows; single-lens camera

Lecture 7: Basics of mirrors, magnifiers, and microscopes

Lecture 8: Telescopes; aberrations: chromatic, spherical, and coma

Lecture 9: More aberrations; optical design; GRadient INdex (GRIN)

Lecture 11: The Hamiltonian formulation; introduction to waves

Lecture 12: The wave equation; phasor representation; 3D waves

Lecture 13: 3D wave phenomena; introduction to electromagnetics

Lecture 14: Maxwell's equations; polarization; Poynting's vector

Lecture 15: Huygens principle; interferometers; Fresnel diffraction

Lecture 16: Gratings: amplitude and phase, sinusoidal and binary

Lecture 17: Fraunhofer diffraction; Fourier transforms and theorems

Lecture 18: Spatial filtering; lens transfer functions & transforms

Lecture 19: The 4F system; binary amplitude & pupil masks

Lecture 20: Shift invariance; pupil engineering; the Talbot effect

Lecture 22: Coherent and incoherent imaging

Lecture 23: Imaging with a single lens

Lecture 25: Resolution; defocused optical systems

Lecture 26: Depth of focus and field; polarization; wave plates