• Total units 24 Units
  • Areas of interest Physics
  • Specialisation code OPTC-SPEC
  • Academic career Undergraduate

Corequisite major: Physics or Theoretical Physics

Description:

The Optics specialisation builds on majors in either Physics or Theoretical Physics to provide a deeper mastery of Optics.

Learning Goals:

Students who complete the Optics specialisation will be able to:

  1. Describe and explain the fundamental principles of optics.
  2. Apply the fundamental principles of optics to solve problems, including those likely to be encountered in future careers. Such problems may involve ambiguity and uncertainty and require the application of multiple principles.
  3. Describe and explain specific examples of how optics is applied to benefit people.
  4. Describe critical experiments in the history of optics and explain how they led to revisions of our theoretical descriptions of optics.
  5. Use mathematical, computational and experimental skills to solve conceptual and quantitative problems in optics.
  6. Analyse unfamiliar optical systems and provide order-of-magnitude estimates of quantities. This includes a knowledge of basic optical constants and key equations.
  7. Be both creative and rigorous in the design and construction of scientific investigations of optical systems.
  8. Effectively communicate optics based analyses to expert and non-expert audiences.

Other Information

Advice to Students

Either the Advanced Physics or Optics specialisation is recommended for those planning on taking the fourth year honours degree in Physics.

Students should seek further course advice from the academic convener of the Advanced Physics specialisation. A specialisation in Advanced Physics must be taken in conjunction with a Physics or Theoretical Physics major





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Requirements

Specialisation Requirements

This specialisation requires the completion of 24 units, which must include:

12 units from completion of the following course(s):

Code Title Units
PHYS2017 Waves and Optics 6
PHYS3057 Optical Physics 6

12 units from completion of the following course(s):

Code Title Units
PHYS2016 Electromagnetism 6
PHYS3031 Atomic Physics: Atom-light interactions 6
PHYS3051 Photonic Sensing Systems 6
PHYS3058 Work Experience in Photonics 6
PHYS3060 Fibre Optic Communication Systems 6
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