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What Is Polarization? 1

Polarization is a property of transverse waves where their oscillations have a definite direction relative to the direction of wave propagation. There are three main types of polarization: linear, circular, and elliptical. Polarization can be achieved through selective absorption in dichroic materials, reflection such as at the Brewster angle, and refraction when light passes between materials. Some crystals exhibit double refraction where light splits into two rays with different velocities and polarizations.

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Shaswath Sasi
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86 views7 pages

What Is Polarization? 1

Polarization is a property of transverse waves where their oscillations have a definite direction relative to the direction of wave propagation. There are three main types of polarization: linear, circular, and elliptical. Polarization can be achieved through selective absorption in dichroic materials, reflection such as at the Brewster angle, and refraction when light passes between materials. Some crystals exhibit double refraction where light splits into two rays with different velocities and polarizations.

Uploaded by

Shaswath Sasi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is Polarization?
Polarization is a characteristic of all transverse waves.

Polarization is the attribute that a wave’s oscillations have a definite


direction relative to the direction of propagation of the wave.

We always define the direction of


polarization of an EM wave to be the direction of the electric-field
vector E , not the magnetic field, because many common EM-wave
detectors respond to the electric forces on electrons in materials.

What is Polarization? 1
🗨
Types of Polarization
Linear/Plane Polarization

Circular Polarization - consists of two perpendicular EM plane waves of


equal amplitude and 90° difference in phase.

Elliptical Polarization - consists of two perpendicular waves of unequal


amplitude which differ in phase by 90°.

Types of Polarization 1
🚨
Methods to Achieve
Polarization
Polarization by Selective
Absorption

Certain materials, known as


dichroic materials, do this,
absorbing light polarized one
way but not absorbing light
polarized perpendicular to
that direction. If the material
is thick enough to absorb all
the light polarized in one
direction, the light emerging
from the material will be
linearly polarized.

Polarization by Reflection

In general, the reflected light also


has both components but with
unequal
magnitudes. This means that the
reflected light is partially
polarized—the electric
fields oscillating along one
direction have greater amplitudes
than those oscillating
along other directions.

However, when the light is


incident at a particular incident
angle, called the Brewster angle

Methods to Achieve Polarization 1


θB , the reflected light has only
perpendicular components. The
reflected light is then fully
polarized perpendicular to the
plane of incidence. The parallel
components of the incident light
do
not disappear but (along with
perpendicular components)
refract into the glass.
−1
Brewster's Law : tan (θB ) = μ

Polarization by Refraction

Polarization can also occur by the refraction


of light. Refraction occurs when a beam of
light passes from one material into another
material. At the surface of the two materials,
the path of the beam changes its direction.
The refracted beam acquires some degree
of polarization. Most often, the polarization
occurs in a plane perpendicular to the
surface.

Methods to Achieve Polarization 2


🕯
Double Refraction
Some gemstones have more than one refractive index RI because these
stones belong to crystal systems (anisotropic) that have atomic structures
that cause an incident ray of light to be resolved into two rays traveling at
different velocities. This difference related to velocities is named
"birefringence".

Refraction and separation of an electromagnetic wave shown by certain


crystals(anisotropic) that split the single incident ray into two refracted rays.
The two rays then vibrate at different velocities and are polarized in
perpendicular planes to each other.

These components are termed the ordinary ray, where the wavefronts are
spherical so that the normal laws of refraction is retained, and the next one is
extraordinary ray, where the wavefronts are not spherical so that the velocity
is dependent on the direction of propagation.

Optic Axis
A line passing any one of the blunt corners, and making equal angles with the
three faces which meet there is the optic axis.

Any line parallel to this is also an optic axis.

Double Refraction 1
The optic axis is a direciton, not a specific line in the crystal.

Optical properties of the crystal are symmetric about an optic axis.

Uniaxial crystals- 1optic Axis

Biaxial crystals- 2 optic axes

Principle Section
Any plane which contains optic axis and is perpendicular to the two opposite
faces is called principle section

Huygen's Explanation of Double Refraction


Huygen proposed that the incident ligt excites two separate wavelets within
the crystal. The separate wavelets are called O-ray and E-ray.

Properties of O-ray and E-ray


Both are plane polarized

O-ray obeys ordinary laws of refraction

E-ray does not obey ordinary laws of refraction

O-ray is horizaontally plane polarized, having vibration ⊥ to the principal


section

E-ray is vertically plane polarized, having vibration in the principal section

Double Refraction 2
O-ray travels with same velocity in all directions

E-ray travels with different velocities. eg. In Calcit crystal, E-ray is faster
than O-ray, i.e , μo > μe .

Quarter and Half Wave Plates


A quarter-wave plate consists of a carefully adjusted thickness of a
birefringent material such that the light associated with the larger index of
refraction is retarded by 90° in phase (a quarter wavelength) with respect
to that associated with the smaller index.

Any linearly polarized light which strikes the plate will be divided into two
components with different indices of refraction. One of the useful
applications of this device is to convert linearly polarized light to circularly
polarized light and vice versa. This is done by adjusting the plane of the
incident light so that it makes 45° angle with the optic axis. This gives
equal amplitude o- and e-waves. When the o-wave is slower, as in calcite,
the o-wave will fall behind by 90° in phase, producing circularly polarized
light.

A half-wave plate consists of a carefully adjusted thickness of a


birefringent material such that the light associated with the larger index of
refraction is retarded by 180° in phase (a 1/2 wavelength) with respect to
that associated with the smaller index.

A half-wave plate is very handy in rotating the plane of polarization from a


polarized laser to any other desired plane (especially if the laser is too
large to
rotate).

Double Refraction 3

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