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Today, the pure science of optics is called optical science or optical physics to distinguish it from applied optical sciences, which are referred to as optical engineering. Prominent subfields of optical engineering include illumination engineering , photonics , and optoelectronics with practical applications like lens design , fabrication and ...
In a work known in the west as De radiis stellarum, al-Kindi developed a theory "that everything in the world ... emits rays in every direction, which fill the whole world." [10] The theorem of Ibn Haytham. This theory of the active power of rays had an influence on later scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham, Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon. [11]
Typically, the theory and applications of emission, absorption, scattering of electromagnetic radiation (light) from excited atoms and molecules, analysis of spectroscopy, generation of lasers and masers, and the optical properties of matter in general, fall into these categories.
The meaning of the term scientific theory (often contracted to theory for brevity) as used in the disciplines of science is significantly different from the common vernacular usage of theory. [5] [note 1] In everyday speech, theory can imply an explanation that represents an unsubstantiated and speculative guess, [5] whereas in a scientific ...
The word "physical" means that it is more physical than geometric or ray optics and not that it is an exact physical theory. [ 1 ] : 11–13 This approximation consists of using ray optics to estimate the field on a surface and then integrating that field over the surface to calculate the transmitted or scattered field.
It is not possible to describe the interaction of an optical electromagnetic wave with a metal using classical optical theory. Nonetheless, some of the main features can be described, at least in quantitative terms, provided the frequency dependence of conductivity and the role of free and bound electrons are taken into account.
The quantum theory was needed to explain effects even with visual light that Maxwell's classical theory could not (such as spectral lines). Quantum theory In 1900 Max Planck , attempting to explain black-body radiation , suggested that although light was a wave, these waves could gain or lose energy only in finite amounts related to their ...
Optical engineering is the field of engineering encompassing the physical phenomena and technologies associated with the generation, transmission, manipulation, detection, and utilization of light. [2] Optical engineers use the science of optics to solve problems and to design and build devices that make light do something useful. [3]