POLARIZATION

Course Content:
*Polarized

and unpolarized light, linearly polarized light *Polarizer &

Law of Malus

*Superposition

of two mutually perpendicular linearly polarized light,

circularly and elliptically polarized light

*Polarization due to reflection (Brewster's law) & scattering

*Polarization by double refraction and phenomena of double refraction
in uniaxial crystals

*Quarter and Half wave plates

*Production of circular and elliptical polarized light,
*Nicole prism, Faraday rotation

Polarization
Property of waves that can oscillate with more than one
orientation
Electromagnetic waves, such
as light, gravitational waves

exhibit polarization

Sound waves in a gas or liquid

do not have polarization:
as medium vibrates only along the
direction in which the waves are travelling.

General Convention:
Polarization of light is described by specifying the orientation of the
wave's electric field at a point in space over one period of the
oscillation
When light travels in free space, in most cases it propagates as
a transverse wave

Polarization is to the wave's direction of travel

 Significant use in

optics, seismology, telecommunications and radar science

The polarization of light can be measured with a polarimeter.

A polarizer is a device that affects polarization.

Polarized and unpolarized light

Linearly polarized waves: E-field
oscillates at all times in the plane of
polarization

Unpolarized light: Efield in random

directions. Superposition of waves with
E vibrating in many different directions

Circular and elliptical polarization

Circularly polarized light: superposition of 2 waves of equal amplitude
with orthogonal polarizations, and 900 out of phase.
The tip of E describes a circle(counterclockwise = RH and clockwise =
LH depend on y component ahead or behind)

If this wave were approaching an observer, its electric vector would

appear to be rotating counter clockwise. This is called right circular
polarization

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

If amplitudes differ elliptical polarization

Elliptical polarization

Linear + circular polarization = elliptical polarization

Circularly polarized light may be produced by passing linearly
polarized light through a quarter-wave plate at an angle of 45 to the
optic axis of the plate.
What is the quantitative approach ???

Mathematical description of the EM wave

Light wave that propagates in the z direction:

E x (z, t ) E0x cos(kz - t) x

E y (z, t ) E0y cos(kz - t ) y

to the equation of an ellipse (using trigonometric identities,

squaring, adding):
2

Ey
Ex Ey
E
x
2

cos sin 2

E 0x E 0y
E 0x E 0y
2

Master equation for polarization of light

Case-I: If there is no amplitude in x (E0x = 0), there is only

one component, in y (vertical).

Case-II: Polarization at 45o

If there is no phase
difference ( = 0) and
E0x = E0y, then Ex = Ey

Case-III: Circular polarization

E x (z, t ) E0x cos(kz - t) x

E y (z, t ) E0y cos(kz - t ) y

If the phase difference is = 90o and E0x = E0y

then: Ex / E0x = cos , Ey / E0y = sin
and we get the equation of a circle:
2

Ex Ey
cos2 sin2 1

E
E
0x 0y
2

Case-IV: Elliptical polarization

If the phase difference is = 90o and E0x E0y
we get the equation of an ellipse:

Summary:

Direction of
propagation

90o

90o

Producing polarized light

Polarization by selective absorption:
material that transmits waves whose E-field
vibrates in a plane parallel to a certain
direction and absorbs all others

Polarizers and Maluss Law

If linearly polarised light (plane of polarization indicated by red
arrow) of intensity I0 passes through a polarizing filter with
transmission axis at an angle along y direction

E inc E 0 sin i E 0 cos j

After the polarizer

E transm E 0 cos j
So the intensity transmitted is

I transm E 02 cos2 I0 cos2

*Transmitted intensity: I = I0 cos2 = intensity of polarized beam on
analyzer (Malus Law)

Unpolarized light on polarizers

Only I0/2 is transmitted of unpolarized light by a polarizer and it is
polarized along the transmission axis

An analyzer rotated at an angle respect to the polarizer

transmits 100% of the incident intensity when = 0 and zero when
= 90o

Relative orientation of the polarizer

Transmitted amplitude is E0 cos

(component of polarization along polarizer axis)
Transmitted intensity is I0 cos2

(square of amplitude)
Perpendicular polarizer give zero intensity

Malus law: Example

1) Light transmitted by first polarizer is vertically polarized. I1 = I0/2

2) Angle between it and second polarizer is = 45o. I2 = I1
cos2(45o)= 0.5 I1 = 0.25 I0
3) Light transmitted through second polarizer is polarized 45o
from vertical. Angle between it and third polarizer is = 45o. I3 =
I2 cos2(45o)= 0.125 I0

Polarization by reflection
Unpolarized light reflected
from a surface becomes
partially polarized
Degree
of
polarization
depends on angle of incidence
If reflected and refracted
beams
are
orthogonal,
complete polarization occurs
Brewsters law: angle of
incidence is given by tan p = n
(n = index of refraction)

Reflection of light off of non-metallic

surfaces results in some degree of
polarization parallel to the surface

Polarization by scattering
Scattering: a photon excites an electron in an atom that absorbs its energy and
re-radiate like an antenna a new photon in a random direction
If incident light is polarized, the plane of polarization of re-radiated light is the
same of incident light.
If the incident light is unpolarized, the E-field vibrates in a plane perpendicular
to the direction of the beam. The electron in the molecule vibrates in that plane
and light scattered at 90o will look polarized and at intermediate angles, it is
polarized.
*The sky looks blue because shorter
wavelengths are more likely to be
scattered than longer(red) ones by air
molecules.
*The sun looks yellow-white because
the light has still all colours. But if you
look at the horizon(a lot of air) most of
the blue is scattered out and the sun
appears red.

Optically active material(your lab)!

They rotate the plane of polarization of incident light
Solution with sugar: when polarized light passes through the Karo
syrup, the direction of its polarization is changed.
The rotation angle is proportional to depth and concentration of syrup.
The rotation angle depends on the wavelength or colour of the light.
Blue light, with its shorter wavelength, rotates more than the longerwavelength red light.

Half and Quarter wave plates

Half wave plate

can be used to rotate the polarization state of a

plane polarized light.

Suppose a plane-polarized wave is normally incident on a wave plate, and the
plane of polarization is at an angle with respect to the fast axis. After passing
through the plate, the original plane wave has been rotated through an angle 2.
A half-wave plate is very handy in
rotating the plane of polarization from a
polarized laser to any other desired
plane

To obtain horizontal polarization, simply

place a half-wave plate in the beam with
its fast (or slow) axis 45 to the vertical.
The l/2 plates can also change left circularly polarized light into right circularly
polarized light or vice versa.
The thickness of half waveplate is such that the phase difference is 1/2
wavelength (l/2, Zero order) or certain multiple of 1/2-wavelength [(2n+1)l/2,
multiple order].

Quarter wave plate

are used to turn plane-polarized light into

circularly polarized light and vice versa.
To do this, we must orient the wave plate so that equal amounts of fast and
slow waves are excited. We may do this by orienting an incident planepolarized wave at 45 to the fast (or slow) axis.
When a l/4 plate is double passed, i.e., by mirror reflection, it acts as a l/2 plate
and rotates the plane of polarization to a certain angle, i.e., 90. This scheme
is widely used in isolators, Q-switches, etc.

The thickness of the quarter

waveplate is such that the phase
difference is 1/4 wavelength (l/4, Zero
order) or certain multiple of 1/4wavelength [(2n+1)l/4, multiple order].

Birefringent
Birefringence is the optical property of a material having a refractive
index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light
These optically anisotropic materials are said to be birefringent
The birefringence is often quantified by the maximum difference in refractive

index within the material

Birefringence is also often used as a synonym for double refraction, the
decomposition of a ray of light into two rays when it passes through a
birefringent material

This effect was first described by the Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in
1669, who saw it in calcite Crystals with anisotropic crystal structures are often
birefringent, as well as plastics under mechanical stress.

Birefringent polarizer: Nicole prism

A Nicol prism is a type of polarizer, an optical device used to produce a
polarized beam of light from an unpolarized beam
Origin:

It was the first type of polarizing prism to be invented, in 1828 by William

Nicol (17701851) of Edinburgh.
It is made in such a way that it eliminate one of the ray by Total Internal
Reflection i.e, O-ray is eliminated and only E-ray is transmitted through the
prism.
It consists of a rhombohedral crystal
of Iceland spar (a variety of calcite) 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
transparent Canada balsam.

Basic Principles
Unpolarized light enters through the left face
of the crystal, and is split into two orthogonally
polarized, differently directed, rays by
the birefringence property of the calcite.

One of these rays (the ordinary or o-ray) experiences a refractive index of no =

1.658 in the calcite and it undergoes total internal reflection at the calcite-glue
interface because its angle of incidence at the glue layer (refractive index n =
1.55) exceeds the critical angle for the interface
The other ray (the extraordinary ray or e-ray) 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. The e-ray merely
undergoes a slight refraction, or bending, as it passes through the interface into
the lower half of the prism. 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.

Nicol prisms were once widely used in microscopy and polarimetry, and the
term "using crossed Nicols" (abbreviated as XN) is still used to refer to the
observing of a sample placed between orthogonally oriented polarizers.

is laser a form of polarized light too?

Laser light is polarized due to the use of a 'Brewster window'
which acts as both mirror and output. Some laser light is more
polarized than others- gas lasers and Nd:YAGs are highly
(linearly) polarized, while diode lasers are much less and may
even be elliptically polarized.