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Polarization

Polarization refers to the phenomenon where light vibrates in only one plane as it propagates. Light waves are transverse waves that consist of electric and magnetic fields vibrating perpendicular to each other and the direction of propagation. Polarized light has its vibrations confined to a single plane, while unpolarized light vibrates in all planes perpendicular to its direction. Polarization can be produced and analyzed using Polaroid filters, which allow vibrations parallel to their transmission axis to pass through but absorb perpendicular vibrations. Brewster's law describes that at a particular polarizing angle, the light reflected off a transparent surface will be completely polarized, with the tangent of this angle equal to the material's refractive index.

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Gautam Prayas
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188 views4 pages

Polarization

Polarization refers to the phenomenon where light vibrates in only one plane as it propagates. Light waves are transverse waves that consist of electric and magnetic fields vibrating perpendicular to each other and the direction of propagation. Polarized light has its vibrations confined to a single plane, while unpolarized light vibrates in all planes perpendicular to its direction. Polarization can be produced and analyzed using Polaroid filters, which allow vibrations parallel to their transmission axis to pass through but absorb perpendicular vibrations. Brewster's law describes that at a particular polarizing angle, the light reflected off a transparent surface will be completely polarized, with the tangent of this angle equal to the material's refractive index.

Uploaded by

Gautam Prayas
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Polarization

Interference and diffraction phenomenon proved that light is a wave motion and enabled the
determination of the wavelength. However, they do not give any information about whether light is
transverse or longitudinal because both the wave shows interference as well as diffraction. Polarization
suggests that light waves are transverse wave.

Polarization: The phenomenon of confining the vibration of light wave to a single plane perpendicular to
its propagation is called polarization of light.

An electromagnetic wave or a light wave is a transverse wave consisting of electric and magnetic fields
vibrating perpendicular to each other and to the direction of propagation as shown in the figure.

The light wave from the light source has all possible direction of vibration. However, the resultant
electromagnetic wave is a superposition of waves vibrating in many directions. This gives unpolarized
light which is shown below.

Plane polarized or linearly polarized light

A wave is said to be linearly polarized if the resultant electric field E vibrates in the same direction at all
times at a particular point.

Unpolarized light: The ordinary light whose vibrations are in all planes perpendicular to its direction of
propagation is called unpolarized light. Light emitted by the sun, electric lamp etc is unpolarized light.

Polarized light: The light whose vibrations are confined along a single plane perpendicular to its direction
of propagation is called polarized light. Light from Polaroid is its example. Its representation is shown
below.
Plane of vibration: The plane formed by the vibrating electric vector (E) and direction of propagation of
light is called plane of vibration. In fact, plane of vibration is a plane in which the vibrations of polarized
light are confined.

Plane of polarization: A plane passing through the direction of propagation of light and perpendicular to
the plane of vibration is called plane of polarization.

Polaroid: A device used to produce plane polarized light is called Polaroid. A common known Polaroid is
a tourmaline crystal. It has a unique optical axis through which only a wave vibrating parallel to this axis
can pass but a vibration which is perpendicular to that axis is strongly absorbed.

Uses of Polaroid

1. Polaroids are used in sunglasses to cut off the glare produced by refracted light.
2. They are used in photographic cameras as filters to reduce the glare of reflected light.
3. They are used to produce and analyze polarized light.
4. They are used to view three dimensional pictures.
5. They are used in windows of trains, airplanes etc. in which outer Polaroid is fixed while the inner
is rotated to have the desired intensity of light.
Experimental verification of transverse nature of light

Consider an unpolarized light is incident on the tourmaline crystal T1 (Polaroid). The transmission axis of
T1 is parallel to the plane of paper. Only the light wave vibrating parallel to the transmission axis of T1 is
transmitted whereas the light vibrating perpendicular to that axis is completely absorbed. The crystal P
has made vibrations of light in one direction and hence it is called polarizer.

When the axis of another tourmaline crystal T2 is made parallel to the plane of paper or axis of T1,
maximum intensity of light is seen in this position of T2. But, when the transmission axis of T2 is rotated
through 900, no light transmitted through the Polaroid T2 and hence the intensity of light transmitted is
zero. The Polaroid T2 identifies the polarization of light and hence it is known as analyzer. This verifies
the transverse nature of light.

Polarization by reflection (Brewster’s law)

When an unpolarized light beam is incident on a transparent material, the reflected and refracted beam
are partially polarized. If the angle of incident is gradually increased, the polarization in reflected beam
increases and it becomes completely polarized at a particular angle of incidence θp as shown in the
figure.

Therefore, A particular angle of incidence on reflecting surface at which the reflected beam of light is
completely plane polarized is called polarizing angle or Brewster’s angle.

Brewster’s law: It states that “The tangent of polarizing angle is equal to the refractive index of the
material.”
Let us consider an unpolarized beam AO is incident on the transparent plane. A part of beam OB is
reflected from the surface whereas OC is refracted as shown in the figure. Brewster found that at a
polarizing angle i = θB, the angle between reflected beam OB and refracted beam OC is 900. Then,

θB + 900 + r = 1800

Or, r = 900 - θB ………………… (i)

Where, r is angle of refraction.

If µ be the refractive index of the transparent medium then from Snell’s law,

µ=

At Brewster angle, i = θB and r = 90 - θB. Then,

µ=

µ=

µ = tan θB ……………. (ii)

This equation is the mathematical form of Brewster law. Since, refractive index µ varies with wavelength
of light polarizing angle depends on the wavelength of light.

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