# Physical Optics

- By: Jeremy Tatum
- Publisher: University of Victoria
- Source: [LibreTexts](https://phys.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Optics/Physical_Optics_(Tatum))
- Licence: [CC BY-NC 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
- Read at LibreTexts: https://phys.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Optics/Physical_Optics_(Tatum)
- PDF: https://downloads.libretexts.org/api/v1/download/phys-7347/pdf

Physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid.