POLARIZATION

Polarized Lens on a Camera

Polarized Lens on a Camera
Em wave
POLARIZATION OF LIGHT
The ordinary light consist of transverse waves in which vibrations takes place
symmetrically in all directions in a plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation of
light. When such light passes through a thin crystal plate A, its vibration are confined
only to a single line in a plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation of light. The
light which exhibit the property of one sidedness is called polarized light or the
phenomenon of asymmetry of vibrations about the direction of propagation is called
polarization of light.
Light which has acquired the property of one-sidedness is called POLARIZED LIGHT.

 The phenomena of asymmetry of vibrations about the direction of propagation is

called POLARIZATION
OR
 The process of removing the symmetry and bringing in one-sidedness is called
POLARIZATION.
TYPES OF POLARIZATION
 When the vibrations are confined along a single direction at right angles to the
direction of propagation the light is said to be PLANE POLARIZED.
 If the vibrations are along a circle it is called CIRCULARLY POLARIZED
LIGHT.
 If the vibrations are along an ellipse it is called ELLIPTICALLY POLARIZED
LIGHT.
ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY OF LIGHT AND
POLARIZATION
 The electromagnetic waves emitted by any common source of light (such as the
Sun or a bulb) are polarized randomly, or unpolarized. That is, the electric field at
any given point is always perpendicular to the direction of travel of the waves but
changes directions randomly.

 EMR has periodic electric and magnetic vibrations in mutually perpendicular plane
at right angles to the direction of wave propagation.

 Polarization :Electromagnetic waves are polarized if their electric field vectors

are all in a single plane, called the plane of oscillation. Light waves from common
sources are not polarized; that is, they are unpolarized, or polarized randomly.
LINEARLY POLARIZED LIGHT
Representation of unpolarized wave and polarized wave
Parameters of
Polarized Light Unpolarized Light
Comparison
Polarized light refers to those light
Unpolarized light refers to those light waves that
Meaning waves that are restricted to one plane
are scattered on more than one plane.
only.
The electric fields of polarized light The electric fields of unpolarized light oscillate
Direction
oscillate in one direction only. in all directions.
The nature of polarized light is
Nature The nature of unpolarized light is incoherent.
coherent.
The nature of the polarizer used
The nature of the source of light waves decides
Intensity decides the intensity of polarized
the intensity of unpolarized light.
light.
Unpolarized light is produced when light waves
Polarized light is generally produced
Production go through the process of reflection, scattering
by natural sources.
or they simply travel through certain materials.

The phase difference between the x The phase difference between the x and y
Phase difference
and y components is always constant. components changes randomly

Representation
PLANE OF POLARIZATION

 The plane of polarization is the plane perpendicular to the plane of vibration which
contains the direction of propagation of light but no vibrations at all. It is shown in
the figure.
 MALUS’ LAW (INTENSITY OF LIGHT TRANSMITTED BY
ANALYZER)

When completely plane polarized light is incident on the

analyzer, the intensity I of the light transmitted by the analyser
is directly proportional to the square of the cosine of angle
between the transmission axes of the analyzer and the polarizer.
I ∞ cos2θ
• Suppose the angle between the transmission axes of the analyzer and the
polarizer is θ.
• The completely plane polarized light form the polarizer is incident on the
analyzer.
• If E0 is the amplitude of the electric vector transmitted by the polarizer, then
intensity I0 of the light incident on the analyzer is
I ∞ E 02
• The electric field vector E0 can be resolved into two rectangular components
i.e E0 cosθ and E0sinθ.
• The analyzer will transmit only the component ( i.e E0cosθ ) which is parallel
to its transmission axis.
• However, the component E0sinθ will be absorbed by the analyser.
• Therefore, the intensity I of light transmitted by the analyzer is,
I ∞ ( E0 cosθ )2
I / I0 = ( E0 cosθ )2 / E02 = cos2θ
I = I0 cos2θ
Therefore, I ∞ cos2θ.
• When θ = 0° ( or 180° ), I = I0 cos20° = I0
That is the intensity of light transmitted by the analyzer is maximum when
the transmission axes of the analyzer and the polarizer are parallel.
• When θ = 90°, I = I0 cos290° = 0.
That is the intensity of light transmitted by the analyzer is minimum when
the transmission axes of the analyser and polarizer are perpendicular to each
other.
 Plane polarized light may be produced from unpolarised light using the following optical
phenomena:

 Reflection
 Double refraction
 Scattering
 Selective absorption
Polarization by Reflection

• In the process of polarization by using reflection of

light phenomenon, the unpolarized light is reflected
from the non metallic surface.

• The amount of polarization then will depend on the

angle of incidence of the light and the composition
of the material used for the reflecting surface.

• Malus discovered that when a beam of ordinary light

is reflected from the surface of transparent media
like glass or water, it gets polarized. The degree of
polarization varies with angle of incidence.
• In polarization by reflection, when the light is allowed to be incident at a particular angle, (for glass it is
57.5o) the reflected beam is completely plane polarised. The angle of incidence at which the reflected
beam is completely plane polarised is called the polarising angle (ip).

The polarising angle (ip) is given as

 θ= θp = tan-1 (n2 / n1), where n1 and n2 are the
refractive indices of rare and denser medium
respectively.
 Thus if unpolarized beam is incident at this
angle, then the reflected beam will be linearly
polarized with its electric vector perpendicular
to the plane of incidence.
 Above equation is also referred to as the
Brewster’s law.
 At this angle of incidence, the reflected and
transmitted rays are at right angles to each other.
 Thus angle θp is known as polarizing angle or
Brewster’s angle.
POLARIZATION BY SCATTERING
 Since light is a transverse EM wave, it vibrates
the electrons of air molecules perpendicular
to the direction that it is traveling.
 The electrons then radiate like small
antennae.
 Since they are oscillating perpendicular to the
direction of the light ray, they produce EM
radiation that is polarized perpendicular to
the direction of the ray.
 When viewing the light along a line
perpendicular to the original ray,
 The light wave radiated from the sun is unpolarised. Once it reaches the Earth’s
atmosphere it undergoes scattering. As they are transverse in nature, They vibrate air
molecules perpendicular to the direction of their propagation. As a result, electrons in
the air molecules starts emitting radiation in the form of light in many directions.
Refer to Figure for better visualization. These light are polarized in the direction
perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the original ray.

 The emitted rays of light which are parallel to the direction/orientation of original
rays are completely unpolarised.
 The emitted rays of light which are perpendicular to the direction of original rays are
completely polarized.
 The rays of light which are scattered in all other directions are partially polarised.
 POLARIZATION BY SELECTIVE ABSORPTION
 A number of crystalline materials absorb more light in one incident plane than
another, so that light progressing through the material become more and more
polarized as they proceed. This anisotropy in absorption is called dichroism. There
are several naturally occurring dichroic materials, and the commercial material
polaroid also polarizes by selective absorption.
POLARIZATION BY DOUBLE REFRACTION (BI-
REFRINGENCE)
 Some transparent crystals, such as calcite and
quartz, have the property that when one views
an object through them one sees two images of
the object.

 If one passes a narrow beam of light through

them, the refracted beam is split into two parts
which travel through the crystal and emerge as
two separate beams.

 One of the beams obeys the ordinary laws of

refraction (Snell’s Law) and is called the
ordinary ray (o-ray). The other beam is called
the extraordinary ray (e-ray).
 If one analyzes the two beams with a Polaroid analyzer, one discovers that the two beams are both
polarized, but that the directions of their vibrations are at right angles to each other
 A Nicol prism is made from calcite crystal.
 It was designed by William Nicol in 1820.
 A calcite crystal whose length is three times
as its width
 The end faces of this crystals are grounded
in such a way that the angles in the principal
section becomes 680 and 1120 instead of 710
and 1090
 The crystal is cut in two pieces by a plane
perpendicular to the principal section as well
as the new end faces.
 Thetwo parts of the crystal are then
cemented together with Canada balsam.
 The refractive index of Canada balsam lies
between the refractive indices for the
ordinary and extra-ordinary rays for calcite.
 An optic axis of a crystal is a direction in which a ray of transmitted light suffers no
birefringence (double refraction). An optical axis is a direction rather than a single
line: all rays that are parallel to that direction exhibit the same lack of
birefringence.
 TYPES OF POLARIZATION

Linear Polarization
 A plane electromagnetic wave is said to be
linearly polarized. The transverse electric field
wave is accompanied by a magnetic field wave
as illustrated.
 CIRCULAR POLARIZATION

 Circularly polarized light consists of two perpendicular electromagnetic plane

waves of equal amplitude and 90° difference in phase. The light illustrated is right-
circularly polarized.
 ELLIPTICAL POLARIZATION
 Elliptically polarized light consists of two perpendicular waves of unequal
amplitude which differ in phase by 90°. The illustration shows right- elliptically
polarized light.
 Circular Polarization

Circularly polarized light consists of two perpendicular electromagnetic plane

waves(Ex and Ey) of equal amplitude and 90° difference in phase. The light
illustrated is right- circularly polarized. If light is composed of two plane waves of
equal amplitude but differing in phase by 90°, then the light is said to be
circularly polarized. If you could see the tip of the electric field vector, it would
appear to be moving in a circle as it approached you. If while looking at the source,
the electric vector of the light coming toward you appears to be rotating
counterclockwise, the light is said to be right-circularly polarized. If clockwise,
then left-circularly polarized light. The electric field vector makes one complete
revolution as the light advances one wavelength toward you. Another way of saying
it is that if the thumb of your right hand were pointing in the direction of
propagation of the light, the electric vector would be rotating in the direction of
your fingers.
 The phase shift can be introduced by use of a material that exhibits birefringence—that
is, has different indexes of refraction for different directions of polarization. A common
example is calcite , when a CaCO3, calcite crystal (Nicol Prism) is oriented
appropriately in a beam of unpolarized light, its refractive index (for a wavelength in
vacuum of 589 nm) is 1.658( lets say for Ex component) for one direction of
polarization and 1.486(Ey component)for the perpendicular direction.
Concept of production of polarized beam of light from two SHM
acting at right angle

 When the ordinary and extraordinary rays in a doubly refracting

crystal are separated, each ray is linearly polarized, but with the
directions of vibration at right angles.
 Since an ordinary ray the direction of vibration is perpendicular to that
in the extraordinary ray, we have to consider the following question.

 What sort of vibration results from the combination of two simple

harmonic vibrations at right angles to each other and differing in
phase?
 Two simple harmonic motions at right angles to each other never
produce destructive interference, no matter what the phase difference.
 When, however, the crystal is cut with its faces parallel to optic axis, so that light,
incident normally on one of the faces, transverse the crystal in a direction
perpendicular to the optic axis, as shown in fig.

 The ordinary and extraordinary rays are not separated. They traverse the same
path, but with different speeds.

 Upon emerging from the second face of the crystal, the ordinary and the
extraordinary rays are out of phase with each other and give rise to either
elliptically polarized, circularly polarized or linearly polarized light, depending
on sample thickness.
 When the phase difference is 0, 2 , or any even multiple of , the result is a linear vibration at
45o , to both original vibrations.
 When the difference is , 3 or any odd multiple of , the result is also a linear
vibration, but at right angles to those corresponding to even multiple of .
 When the phase difference is
𝜋 3𝜋 𝜋
, or any odd multiple of , the resulting vibration is a circle.
2 2 2
 For all the other phase differences, the resulting vibration is an ellipse.
 The experimental procedure relies on the property of birefringence, as exhibited by
certain transparent materials. Birefringence is a phenomenon in which a ray of light
passing through a given material experiences two refractive indices. The property of
birefringence (or double refraction) is observed in many optical crystals. Upon the
application of stresses, photoelastic materials exhibit the property of birefringence, and
the magnitude of the refractive indices at each point in the material is directly related to
the state of stresses at that point. Information such as maximum shear stress and its
orientation are available by analyzing the birefringence with an instrument called a
polariscope.

 When a ray of light passes through a photoelastic material, its electromagnetic wave
components are resolved along the two principal stress directions and each component
experiences a different refractive index due to the birefringence. The difference in the
refractive indices leads to a relative phase retardation between the two components.
Mathematics of Circular and Elliptical Polarization
Consider two orthogonally polarized plane waves travelling in the z-direction:
Ey = E1 cos (kx – ωt)
Ex = E2 cos (kx – ωt + ϕ)

The amplitudes of the two waves (Ex and Ey) and their relative phase ϕ, determine the resultant polarization state:
A ray of light is incident on a surface of a water of refractive index 1.33. If the reflected light is completely plane
polarized, calculate the angle of polarization and hence angle of incidence and refraction.
Two polarizing sheets have polarizing directions parallel so that the intensity of the transmitted light is
maximum. Through what angle must either sheet be turned if the intensity is to drop by half?

A polarizer and an analyser are parallel so that the maximum light is transmitted. When the analyser is
rotated through 30 0, 40 0, 600 and 90 0 to what percentage of its maximum value is the intensity of
transmitted light reduced?
 It is desired to use a plate of glass to obtain polarized light. If the R.I of glass is 1.5, what is polarizing angle?

Formula: µ = tan 𝜭 [Ans: 𝜭 = 56.31 degree].

The critical angle of incidence for total reflection in case of water is 48 0. What is the polarization angle? What is the angle of refraction
corresponding to the polarization angle? Formula: µ = 1/sin𝜭 and µ = tan 𝜭
[Ans: 𝜭 = 53.4 degree, Angle of refraction r = 36039`]
Unpolarised light falls on two polarizing sheets placed one on top of the other. What
must be the angle between the characteristic directions of the sheets if the intensity
of the transmitted light is one-third intensity of the incident beam?
[Ans: 𝜭=35.3 degree]

Light of intensity I0 is incident on a polarizer. What is the intensity of the resultant beam?
if 1) Incident light is unpolarised? 2) Incident light is PPL with it’s electric field
making an angle of 300 with the axis of polarizer?
Formula: Use Malus law [Ans: 1) I0 / 2 2) I = ¾ I0 ]