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A Fresnel lens ( / ˈfreɪnɛl, - nəl / FRAY-nel, -nəl; / ˈfrɛnɛl, - əl / FREN-el, -əl; or / freɪˈnɛl / fray-NEL [1]) is a type of composite compact lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections.
A Fresnel rhomb is an optical prism that introduces a 90° phase difference between two perpendicular components of polarization, by means of two total internal reflections.
The Fresnel equations (or Fresnel coefficients) describe the reflection and transmission of light (or electromagnetic radiation in general) when incident on an interface between different optical media. They were deduced by French engineer and physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel ( / freɪˈnɛl /) who was the first to understand that light is a transverse wave, when no one realized that the waves ...
École Polytech (1821–1824) Augustin-Jean Fresnel [Note 1] (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Newton 's corpuscular theory, from the late 1830s [3] until the end of the 19th century.
Prism (optics) An optical prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that are designed to refract light. At least one surface must be angled — elements with two parallel surfaces are not prisms. The most familiar type of optical prism is the triangular prism, which has a triangular base and rectangular sides.
Refractive index. A ray of light being refracted through a glass slab. In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. Refraction of a light ray. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or ...
The success of Fresnel's wave theory of light was established in his prize-winning memoire of 1819 that predicted and measured diffraction patterns. The Arago interferometer was later employed in 1850 by Leon Foucault to measure the speed of light in air relative to water, and it was used again in 1851 by Hippolyte Fizeau to measure the effect ...
Optical rotation, also known as polarization rotation or circular birefringence, is the rotation of the orientation of the plane of polarization about the optical axis of linearly polarized light as it travels through certain materials. Circular birefringence and circular dichroism are the manifestations of optical activity.
The transfer-matrix method is a method used in optics and acoustics to analyze the propagation of electromagnetic or acoustic waves through a stratified medium; a stack of thin films. [1] [2] This is, for example, relevant for the design of anti-reflective coatings and dielectric mirrors . The reflection of light from a single interface between ...
Microlens. A microlens is a small lens, generally with a diameter less than a millimetre (mm) and often as small as 10 micrometres (μm). The small sizes of the lenses means that a simple design can give good optical quality but sometimes unwanted effects arise due to optical diffraction at the small features. A typical microlens may be a ...