Appalachian State University will upgrade optics laboratories for undergraduate instruction. A modern optics laboratory will be instrumented for a senior-level course, Optics and Optoelectronics. The laboratory component of this course will include traditional experiments in geometrical and physical optics but will emphasize contemporary topics in optical science such as lasers, fiber optic communication, and holographic techniques. An important part of the laboratory work will be the use, in selected experiments, of microcomputers for data acquisition and instrument control as well as for data analysis. The computer hardware and some of the necessary optics equipment has already been acquired. All of the experiments have been designed and developed and, to the extent possible, tested with the limited equipment on hand. A number of classical optics experiments currently performed in existing upper-level physics laboratory courses will also be upgraded by supplementing or replacing some older one-of-a-kind apparatus with present generation equipment. Introductory courses for science and pre- engineering majors and others will also be improved by the project.
