optika

Optics, or optika in some languages, is the branch of physics that studies light and its interactions with matter. It encompasses the generation, propagation, detection, and manipulation of electromagnetic radiation across a wide range of wavelengths, from radio waves to gamma rays, including visible light. Light exhibits both wave-like and particle-like aspects, described by phenomena such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, polarization, and dispersion.

Geometrical optics uses simplified ray models to analyze how lenses, mirrors, and other surfaces form images, enabling the design of eyeglasses, cameras, microscopes, and telescopes. Physical optics treats wave phenomena such as interference and diffraction that arise in gratings, thin films, and optical coatings. Quantum optics studies light at the level of photons, including quantum coherence, entanglement, and interactions with matter.

Important tools and concepts include lenses and prisms that bend or spread light, optical fibers for communication, detectors such as photodiodes and cameras, spectrometers, and interferometers. Core applications span vision correction, photography, astronomy, telecommunications, and a wide range of medical and industrial technologies. Lasers, nonlinear optics, and imaging techniques like optical coherence tomography illustrate the field’s breadth.

Historically, optics emerged in ancient and medieval science, with contributions from scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham. The development of wave and particle theories in the early modern period, followed by Maxwell’s electromagnetism and later quantum optics, shaped the modern understanding of light.

Optika today is highly interdisciplinary, intersecting physics, engineering, chemistry, and computer science, and it informs both fundamental research and everyday technologies.