National Capital Section of the Optical Society of America
OSA Headquarters
2010 Massachusetts Ave, Washington, DC
Dupont Circle, Red Line Metro

Tuesday 17 April 2007

Please RSVP by April 16 at Noon to Chad Stark at cstark@osa.org if planning on attending networking session.

SCHEDULE

6:30 PM
Social Hour/Networking
Light Refreshments provided courtesy of OSA

7:30 PM
"Recent Advances in the Understanding of Surface Scatter Behavior"
Speaker: James E. Harvey, Associate Professor of Optics in the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida and a Senior Staff Member at the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL)

8:15 PM
"ReSET: Retired Scientists, Engineers and Technicians: Scientists in the Classroom"
Speakers: Harold Sharlin, ReSET, Washington DC, and Stephen Jacobs, Department of Optical Technology within the Engineering Division, Univ. of Rochester

ABSTRACTS

"Recent Advances in the Understanding of Surface Scatter Behavior"
Scattering effects from optical surfaces are non-paraxial diffraction
phenomena resulting from random phase variations in the reflected wavefront. Rayleigh Rice (1951) or Beckmann-Kirchoff (1963) theories are commonly used to predict surface scatter effects.  Also, Harvey and Shack (1976) developed a linear systems formulation of surface scatter phenomena in which the scattering behavior is characterized by a surface transfer function. This treatment provided insight and understanding not readily gleaned from the two previous theories. However, smooth surface and/or paraxial approximations have severely limited the range of applicability of each of the above theoretical treatments.  A new linear systems formulation of non-paraxial scalar diffraction theory applied to surface scatter phenomena resulted first in an empirically modified Beckmann-Kirchhoff model, then a generalized Harvey-Shack theory that produces accurate results for rougher surfaces than the Rayleigh-Rice theory and for larger incident angles than the classical Beckmann-Kirchhoff theory.  Furthermore, the smooth-surface approximation to this new generalized surface scatter theory yields an improved solution to the inverse scattering problem of characterizing optical surfaces from BRDF measurements.

"ReSET: Retired Scientists, Engineers and Technicians: Scientists in the Classroom"
ReSET is a D.C.-based non-profit volunteer organization that partners retired scientists, engineers, and technicians with elementary school teachers to improve science motivation and literacy in children K-6. ReSET's mission is to motivate children to discover and explore the worlds of science, math, and technology, and to encourage them to consider future careers in one of these exciting fields. Their goal is to make science and math accessible, relevant, and fun!

NCSOSA Web Site:

http://www.osa.org/LocalSections/ncsosa/