Teaching thin optical coating and optics education in developing country – a scenario in Bangladesh

Optics education is an essential ingredient in building modern science and technology. As the rate of technological change accelerates, continuing optics education becomes more important than other. This talk is an account of a successfully continuing professional-education course on optics and optical coatings in the Department of Applied Physics & Electronic Engineering, University of Rajshahi, a scenario of optics education in Bangladesh. The foundation course on optics emphasizes in understanding of the basic principles of geometrical and physical optics through formal lectures and its practice through laboratory demonstrations. The Department of Applied Physics & Electronic Engineering usually do local fabrication/ assembling of optics laboratory teaching aids. Students and technical staffs under the guidance of a Faculty staff member do equipment fabrication and assembling. This article describes some of the project-type set ups for performing experiments on (i) wavelengths of various spectral lines determination (ii) determination of unknown solution concentration (iii) determination of thickness of thin optical coating as well as (iv) determination of various optical parameters such as refractive index, optical band gap through the measurement of transmission and reflection spectra. OCIS codes: (000.2060) Education, (080.2740) Geometrical optics, optical design, 310.6860) Thin Films, Optical Properties