Course introduction
6.161 offers an introduction to laboratory optics, optical principles, and optical devices and systems. This course covers a wide range of topics, including: polarization properties of light, reflection and refraction, coherence and interference, Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction, holography, imaging and transforming properties of lenses, spatial filtering, two-lens coherent optical processor, optical properties of materials, lasers, electro-optic, acousto-optic and liquid-crystal light modulators, optical detectors, optical waveguides and fiber-optic communication systems. Students engage in extensive oral and written communication exercises. There are 12 engineering design points associated with this subject.
