Effective physical optics hands-on experience through the characterization of a CD and a DVD

We present a fruitful student's lab experiment allowing for an effective learning of some of the basics in physical optics. We proceed with the characterization of the surface structure of a compact disk (CD) and a digital versatile disk (DVD). This experiment is an effective means to have a direct hands-on experience on diffraction, Young's fringes interference phenomena, and diffraction chromatic dispersion. The fact that both CD and DVD are widespread consumer electronics devices enhances the interest of the student on the experiment.This work was supported by Generalitat Valenciana, Spain (projects GV01-130, GV04A/574 and GV04A/565)