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Polarization

An electromagnetic wave is composed of electric and magnetic fields that are perpendicular to each other and the direction of propagation. A polarizer allows light through based on the direction the electric field is oscillating. When unpolarized light passes through a polarizer, the intensity is reduced by a factor of 1/2 because only light with the electric field oscillating in one direction passes. If this polarized light then passes through a second polarizer oriented at an angle, the intensity is further reduced by the cosine of that angle. A polarizer can produce 100% polarized light from unpolarized light in an ideal case.

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justme8
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16 views

Polarization

An electromagnetic wave is composed of electric and magnetic fields that are perpendicular to each other and the direction of propagation. A polarizer allows light through based on the direction the electric field is oscillating. When unpolarized light passes through a polarizer, the intensity is reduced by a factor of 1/2 because only light with the electric field oscillating in one direction passes. If this polarized light then passes through a second polarizer oriented at an angle, the intensity is further reduced by the cosine of that angle. A polarizer can produce 100% polarized light from unpolarized light in an ideal case.

Uploaded by

justme8
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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An electromagnetic wave is composed of two parts which is the electric field and also the magnetic field.

The electric field of a photon is perpendicular to that of the magnetic field; and also perpendicular to the
direction of propagation.

There is no biased or favored direction for the electric field to
oscillate. So an incident electric field may be oscillating in any
random directions.


A polarizer ( or sometimes known as a Polaroid) functions as a device that only allows light with electric
field that are oscillating in certain direction to pass through.

The incident light has an initial intensity of
0
I ; when it passes through the polarizer only light with
electric field oscillating in the specific direction is allowed to pass through. So the intensity of the light is
reduced by a factor of
2
cos u . As stated previously there is no favored direction of oscillation for the
electric field of the incident light. On average the value of
2
cos u is , so on average the intensity of
lights passed through the polarizer is
2
0
1
2
I . This outcome is an ideal case of polarization which is not
found in any device known. The light that passed through the polarizer is 100% polarized. When the light
passes through another polarizer which is orientated such that the electric field is oscillating at some
angle different from the polarized light, then the intensity of the light passing through will be reduced
again by
2
cos u . So finally the intensity of light is
2
0
1
cos
2
I u .

The parallel and perpendicular
| |
| |
( )
( )
1 2
1 2
cos cos tan
cos cos tan
t t
r i i
r
i
t
i
t r
n n
E E E
n n
u u
u u
u u
u u

= =
+ +

and
r i
u u =
If 90
t i
u u = + , then 0
r
E , which implies that the reflected light does not have magnitude for the
electric field oscillating in the parallel direction.
sin
sin
i
t
n
u
u
= , thus
sin si
tan
n
sin(90 ) cos
i i
i i
i
n
u u
u u
u = = =


tan n u = , u is the Brewsters angle, n is the refractive index of the medium.

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