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    Nicol Prism

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    Vishwath Ram
    A Nicol prism is a type of polarizer that produces a polarized beam of light from an unpolarized beam. It was invented in 1828 by William Nicol and consists of a calcite crystal cut at a 68 degree angle and rejoined with Canada balsam glue. When unpolarized light enters the calcite crystal, it splits into two polarized rays - an ordinary and extraordinary ray. The Nicol prism is designed so that the ordinary ray undergoes total internal reflection while the extraordinary ray passes through, emerging as a plane polarized light beam.

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    Nicol Prism

    Uploaded by

    Vishwath Ram
    6K views22 pages
    A Nicol prism is a type of polarizer that produces a polarized beam of light from an unpolarized beam. It was invented in 1828 by William Nicol and consists of a calcite crystal cut at a 68 degree angle and rejoined with Canada balsam glue. When unpolarized light enters the calcite crystal, it splits into two polarized rays - an ordinary and extraordinary ray. The Nicol prism is designed so that the ordinary ray undergoes total internal reflection while the extraordinary ray passes through, emerging as a plane polarized light beam.

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    Nicol Prism

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    A Nicol prism is a type of polarizer that produces a polarized beam of light from an unpolarized beam. It was invented in 1828 by William Nicol and consists of a calcite crystal cut at a 68 degree angle and rejoined with Canada balsam glue. When unpolarized light enters the calcite crystal, it splits into two polarized rays - an ordinary and extraordinary ray. The Nicol prism is designed so that the ordinary ray undergoes total internal reflection while the extraordinary ray passes through, emerging as a plane polarized light beam.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    6K views22 pages

    Nicol Prism

    Uploaded by

    Vishwath Ram
    A Nicol prism is a type of polarizer that produces a polarized beam of light from an unpolarized beam. It was invented in 1828 by William Nicol and consists of a calcite crystal cut at a 68 degree angle and rejoined with Canada balsam glue. When unpolarized light enters the calcite crystal, it splits into two polarized rays - an ordinary and extraordinary ray. The Nicol prism is designed so that the ordinary ray undergoes total internal reflection while the extraordinary ray passes through, emerging as a plane polarized light beam.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 22

    Nicol Prism

    What is it ?
    ANicol prismis a type

    ofpolarizer, an optical device


    used to produce a polarized
    beam of light from an
    unpolarized beam.
    Nicol prism was designed by
    William Nicol .

    History
    It was the first type of

    polarizingprismto be invented, in
    1828 byWilliam Nicol(17701851)
    ofEdinburgh. It consists of
    arhombohedralcrystal ofIceland
    spar(a variety ofcalcite) that has
    been cut at an angle of 68 with
    respect to the crystal axis, cut again
    diagonally, and then rejoined as
    shown using, as a glue, a layer of

    William Nicol

    Principle
    When an unpolarized beam enters the

    calcite crystal , it splits up into two


    plane polarized rays , as ordinary ray
    and extra-ordinary ray .
    The nicol prism is designed in such a
    way so as to eliminate ordinary ray by
    total internal reflection .
    Hence the extra-ordinary ray is
    transmitted through the prism .

    Construction
    One of the most common forms of the

    Nicol prism is made by taking a calcite


    crystal whose length is three times its
    breadth. It is cut into two halves along
    the diagonal so that their face angles
    are 72 and 108. And the two halves
    are joined together by a layer of
    Canada balsam, a transparent
    cement .

    Calcite is used because of its clarity,

    stability, high spectral transmission


    range (2005000 nm), and high
    birefringence.
    The refractive index for Canada
    balsam is 1.550 for both rays

    Calcite crystal

    Working
    Unpolarized light enters through the

    left face of the crystal and is split


    into two orthogonally polarized,
    differently directed, rays by
    thebirefringenceproperty of the
    calcite.

    Theordinaryray experiences a

    refractive index ofno= 1.658 in the


    calcite and it undergoestotal internal
    reflection at the calcite-glue interface
    because its angle of incidence at the
    glue layer (refractive indexn= 1.55)
    exceeds thecritical angle for the
    interface.

    Theextraordinaryray experiences a

    lower refractive index (ne= 1.486) in


    the calcite, and is not totally reflected
    at the interface because it strikes the
    interface at a sub-critical angle.
    It undergoes a slight refraction, or
    bending, as it passes through the
    interface into the lower half of
    theprism.

    It finally leaves the prism as a ray of


    plane polarized light, undergoing
    another refraction as it exits the far
    right side of the prism .

    The two exiting rays have

    polarizations orthogonal (at right


    angles) to each other, but the e-ray,
    is more commonly used because it is
    again traveling in the original
    horizontal direction, assuming that
    the calcite prism angles have been
    properly cut.

    The direction of o-ray, is quite

    different from its original direction


    because it alone suffers total internal
    reflection at the glue interface as well
    as a final refraction on exit from the
    upper side of the prism .

    O-ray has vibrations perpendicular to

    principal section. RI of calcite for Oray is 1.658 and RI of Canada balsam


    is 1.55. Thus for O-ray the calcite
    crystal is denser medium. It is totally
    reflected by Canada balsam and
    absorbed by blackened surfaces.

    RI of the crystal for E-ray is 1.486.

    Calcite behaves as rarer medium. So


    it is transmitted by Canada balsam
    and finally emerges out of the crystal
    as polarised beam of light.

    Applications
    Used inmicroscopyandpolarimetry ,

    and the term "using crossed Nicols"


    (abbreviated asXN) is still used to
    refer to the observing of a sample
    placed between orthogonally oriented
    polarizers.
    They are used as analysers .

    Disadvantages
    Very expensive and bulky
    Have a very limited aperture, which

    restricts their use at high


    magnifications

    Current Trend
    Nicol prisms have been replaced by

    other types of polarizers such


    asPolaroidsheets andGlan
    Thompson prisms.

    THANK YOU !!!

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