bf

POLARIZATION

n Chapter 38, we showed electromagnetic waves trav-

eling such that the electric field vector E and magnetic field vector B are perpendicular to each other and
fo the direction of propagation of the wave. That is, electromagnetic waves are transverse waves. This pre-
diction follows from Maxwell's equations.
In many of the experiments we have described so far, light waves do not reveal their transverse nature.
For example, reflection, refraction, interference, and diffraction can occur for longitudinal waves (such as
sound) as well as for transverse waves. In this chapter we consider phenomena that not only depend on the
transverse nature of electromagnetic radiation, they also depend on the particular orientation in space of
the electric and magnetic field vectors.

44-1 POLARIZATION OF
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES
You may have had the experience of rotating a small
portable radio one way or another to improve the reception
of the station to which you were listening. Or perhaps you
adjusted the position or orientation of an antenna attached
to your stereo system to increase the strength of the signal.
If you have a TV antenna on your roof, you must align it in
the proper orientation to receive the signals that are broad-
cast from the station. These adjustments are necessary be-
cause some types of antennas respond to the electric field E
of an electromagnetic wave, and a signal can be received
only if the electric field of the wave can force electrons to
flow along wires to make a current. The orientation of the
antenna must be chosen to match the orientation of the E
field of the wave as it is produced by the broadcast antenna.
For example, in the United States, television signals may be
broadcast so that the E field oscillates in a horizontal plane,
so the plane of the rooftop antenna must also be horizontal
(Fig. 44-1). In some other countries, TV signals may be
broadcast with the E field oscillating in a vertical plane,
and so a different orientation of the rooftop antenna would
be required to receive the signal. Figure 44-1. Rooftop TV antennas in the United States.

999
1000 CHAPTER 44 / POLARIZATION

FIGURE 44-2. The electromag-

netic wave generated by the trans-
mitter 1s polarized in the plane of
the page, with its E vector parallel
to the axis of the transmitting an-
Microwave | oT ae | | Microwave tenna. The receiving antenna can
transmitter I ay ==> receiver detect this wave with maximum ef-
x
[ fectiveness if its antenna also lies
Antenna in the plane and parallel to E. If
the receiving antenna were rotated
through 90° about the direction of
propagation, no signal would be
detected.

Figure 44-2 shows an experimental arrangement that ization of the wave. Note that specifying two directions of
demonstrates this effect. A microwave transmitter on the an electromagnetic wave (the direction of propagation and
left is connected to a dipole antenna. Charges surging up the direction of E) completely specifies the wave, because
and down in the antenna produce an electromagnetic wave the direction of B is fixed by these two directions.*
whose E vector is (at large distances from the dipole) paral- The wave illustrated in Fig. 44-3 is said to be Jinearly
lel to its axis. When this wave is incident on the antenna of polarized (also called plane polarized). This means that the
the microwave receiver at the nght, the E vector of the E field remains in a fixed direction (the y direction in Fig.
wave causes charges to move up and down in the antenna. 44-3) as the wave propagates. As in the experiment shown
These moving charges produce a signal in the receiver. in Fig. 44-2, linearly polarized electromagnetic waves, such
If the transmitter were rotated by 90° about the direction as those that are used for radio and TV transmission, can be
of propagation of the wave, the signal in the receiver would produced by orienting the axis of a dipole transmitting an-
drop to zero. In this case, the E vector of the wave would be tenna in a certain direction. The motions of the electrons in
at right angles to the axis of the receiving antenna; the wave the antenna are coherent; they act in unison to transmit a
would produce no movement of charge along the antenna and polarized electromagnetic wave. Figure 44-4a shows a view
thus no signal in the receiver. A similar result would be ob- of the linearly polarized wave of Fig. 44-3 as it might be
tained if the receiver were rotated instead of the transmitter. seen if it were traveling out of the paper toward you. The
Figure 44-3 represents a plane electromagnetic wave electric field oscillates in a single direction (in this case, up
like the one that would be observed far from the transmit- and down along the y axis).
ting antenna in Fig. 44-2. As is always the case, the E and
B vectors are perpendicular to one another and to the direc-
tion of propagation of the wave, which is the basic picture * Recall the Poynting vector, S = (E X B)/yo. discussed in Section 38-6,
where § is in the direction of propagation of the wave. Given § and E, we
of a transverse wave. By convention, we define the direc-
can find the magnitude and direction of BE.
tion of polarization of the wave to be the direction of the E
vector (the y direction in Fig. 44-3). The plane determined
by the E vector and the direction of propagation of the ¥ ¥
wave (the xy plane in Fig. 44-3) is called the plane of polar-
E E
7 aA Random
phase
m|

E a
z——<] >

Vv We

_—
a
1
aa

-
-

ra
a
1

Udy
|
Z
=
(a)

FIGURE
(bh)

44-4.
(c)

(a) A linearly polarized wave, such as that of

- Fig. 44-3, viewed from along the direction of propagation. The
—
wave Is moving out of the plane of the page. Only the direction of
FIGURE 44-3. An instantaneous snapshot of a traveling elec- the E. vector is shown. (5) An unpolarized wave, which can be con-
tromagnetic wave showing the E and B vectors. The wave is lin- sidered to be a random superposition of many polarized waves. (c)
early polarized, in this case in the y direction. The plane of polar- An equivalent way of showing the unpolarized wave, as two waves
ization 1s defined to be the plane containing the E vector and the linearly polarized at right angles to one another and with a random
direction of propagation; in this case, the plane of polarization is phase difference between them. The orientation of the y and z axes
the xy plane. about the direction of propagation is completely arbitrary.
 44-2 POLARIZING SHEETS 1001

In other sources of electromagnetic waves, such as the

Sun or an incandescent lightbulb, the atoms behave inde-
pendently rather than cooperatively. Taken together, the
emissions from these sources do not show a single plane of
polarization; instead, the radiation is composed of many
components whose polarizations are randomly distributed
around the direction of propagation, such as is represented
in Fig. 44-46. This light is transverse but unpolarized; that
is, there is no preferred plane of polarization.
Figure 44-4c shows another way to represent an unpo-
larized wave. The random E vectors are represented by
their net components on any two perpendicular axes (in this
case, y and z). For unpolarized waves, the components have
equal amplitudes, and the phase difference between them FiGurRe 44-6. Another view of the action of a polarizing sheet.
varies randomly with time. A linearly polarized wave (perhaps one of those shown in Fig. 44-
45) oriented in a random direction @ falls on the sheet. The y com-
ponent of E is transmitted, and the z component is absorbed.

44-2 POLARIZING SHEETS

components, E. (of magnitude F sin @) and E, (of magnitude
Figure 44-5 shows unpolarized light falling on a sheet of FE cos @), can replace E, one parallel to the polarizing direc-
commercial polarizing material called Polaretd.* There ex- tion and one at nght angles to it. Only the component E, is
ists in the sheet a certain characteristic polarizing direction, transmitted; the component E. is absorbed within the sheet.
shown by the parallel lines. The sheet transmits only those When unpolarized light 1s incident on an ideal polariz-
wavetrain components whose electric field vectors vibrate ing sheet, the intensity of the polarized light transmitted
parallel to this direction and absorbs those that vibrate at through the sheet is half the incident intensity, no matter
right angles to this direction. The light emerging from the what the orientation of the sheet is. We can see this from
sheet is linearly polarized. The polarizing direction of the the representation of the incident unpolarized light given in
sheet is established during the manufacturing process by Fig. 44-4c, in which each of the components has, on the av-
embedding certain long-chain molecules in a flexible plas- erage, half the intensity of the incident light. Because the
tic sheet and then stretching the sheet so that the molecules orientation of the axes in Fig. 44-4¢ is arbitrary, we are free
are aligned parallel to each other. Radiation with its E vec- to choose one of them to be along the direction of transmis-
tor parallel to the long molecules is strongly absorbed, sion of the polarizing sheet on which it is incident. Since
while radiation with its E vector perpendicular to that di- this component of the light would be completely transmit-
rection passes through the sheet. ted and the other completely absorbed, the sheet transmits
In Fig. 44-6, the polarizing sheet or polarizer lies in the 50% of the incident light. We can reach the same conclu-
plane of the page, and the direction of propagation is out of sion from Fig. 44-6, in which a wave polarized in an arbi-
the page. The vector E shows the plane of vibration of a ran- trary direction is incident on a polarizing sheet. The compo-
domly selected wavetrain falling on the sheet. Two vector nent £, (= Ecos @) is transmitted, so the transmitted
intensity is proportional to E; = E* cos~ 6. If the incident
light is unpolarized, we find the total transmitted intensity
* There are other ways of producing polarized hght without using this
by averaging this expression over all possible orientations
well-known commercial product. We mention some of them later. Also see
“The Amateur Scientist,” by Jearl Walker, Scientific American, December of the plane of polarization of the incident light—that is,
1977, p. U72, for ways of making polarizing sheets and quarter-wave and over all possible values of 6. The average value of cos @ is
half-wave plates and for various experiments that can be done with them. ‘, so We again conclude that half the incident light is trans-
mitted. Because of reflection and partial absorption of the

i
light along the polarizing direction, real polarizing sheets
may transmit only 40% of the incident intensity. In our dis-
cussions, We assume ideal polarizers.
Let us place a second polarizing sheet P, (usually
called, when used in this way, an analyzer) as in Fig. 44-7.
If P; is rotated about the direction of propagation, there are
Polarizing two positions, 180° apart, at which the transmitted light in-
sheet P,
tensity falls to zero; these are the positions in which the po-
Figure 44-5. Unpolarized light ts linearly polarized (and re- larizing directions of P, and P; are at right angles.
duced in intensity by half) after passing through a single polariz- If the amplitude of the linearly polarized light incident
ing sheet. The parallel lines, which are not actually visible on the on P; is E,,, the amplitude of the light that emerges is
sheet, suggest its polarization direction. E,, cos @ where @ is the angle between the polarizing
1002 CHAPTER 44 / POLARIZATION

ee, as + f — = + .

Polarizer Analyzer

Figure 44-7. Unpolarized light is not transmitted by two po-

larizing sheets whose polarizing directions are perpendicular to
one another.

a
directions of P, and P,. Recalling that the intensity of the

P a
light beam is proportional to the square of the amplitude, we
see that the transmitted intensity / varies with @ according to
i= TI], cos* 0, (44-1)

a
in Which J,,, the maximum value of the transmitted inten-
sity, occurs When the polarizing directions of P,; and P; are
parallel—that is, when @ = 0 or 180°. Figure 44-8a, in
which two overlapping polarizing sheets are in the parallel
position (@ = 0 or 180° in Eq. 44-1), shows that the inten-
sity of the light transmitted through the region of overlap
has its maximum value. In Fig. 44-85, one of the sheets has FIGURE 44-9. A piece of plastic is viewed between crossed
polarizing sheets. The light and dark patterns show regions of
been rotated through 90° so that @in Eq. 44-1 has the value
stress in the structure, which is a model of the construction details
90° or 270°; the intensity of the light transmitted through
of a gothic cathedral.
the region of overlap is now a minimum. Equation 44-1,
called the law of Malus, was discovered by Etienne Louis
Malus (1775-1812) experimentally in 1809, using different sion is parallel to this field. Polarization studies have sug-
polarizing techniques (see Section 44-3). gested that Saturn’s rings consist of ice crystals. The size
Historically, polarization studies were made (for exam- and shape of virus particles can be determined by the polar-
ple, by Malus and by Thomas Young, who, in addition to ization of ultraviolet light scattered from them. Information
demonstrating the wave nature of light by double-slit inter- about the structure of atoms and nuclei is obtained from po-
ference, also demonstrated its transverse nature through po- larization studies of their emitted radiations in all parts of
larization experiments) to investigate the nature of light. the electromagnetic spectrum. Thus we have a useful re-
Today we reverse the procedure and deduce something search technique for structures ranging in size from a
about the nature of an object from the polarization state of galaxy (10*** m) to a nucleus (10~"* m).
the light emitted by, or scattered from, that object. It has Polarized light also has many applications in industry
been possible to deduce, from studies of the polanzation of and in engineering. Figure 44-9 shows a piece of plastic that
light reflected from them, that the grains of cosmic dust has been stressed and placed between polarizing sheets. The
present in our galaxy have been oriented in the weak galac- stress pattern is revealed, allowing engineers to refine their
tic magnetic field (about 10~* T) so that their long dimen- designs to reduce stress at critical locations in the struc-

\ Figure 44-8. Two sheets of polariz-

ing material (in this case, polarizing sun-
glasses) are placed over a pattern of lines.
In (a) the polarization directions of the two
sheets are parallel, so that light passes
through; in (5) the polarization directions
are perpendicular, so that no light passes
through the two overlapping lenses.
 44-3 POLARIZATION BY REFLECTION 1003

1
8 = cos”! (=) = +45°, + 135°.
2
The same effect is obtained no matter which sheet is rotated or
in which direction.

44-3 POLARIZATION BY
REFLECTION
Malus discovered in 1809 that light can be partially or com-
pletely polarized by reflection. Anyone who has watched the
Sun's reflection in water, while wearing a pair of sunglasses
made of polarizing material, has probably noticed the effect.
It is necessary only to tilt the head from side to side, thus ro-
tating the polarizing sheets, to observe that the intensity of
the reflected sunlight passes through a minimum.
Figure 44-11 shows an unpolarized beam falling on a
glass surface. The E vectors are resolved into two compo-
nents (as in Fig. 44-4c), one perpendicular to the plane of
incidence (the plane of Fig. 44-11) and one parallel to this
plane. On the average, for completely unpolarized incident
light, these two components are of equal amplitude.
Por glass or other dielectric materials, there is a particu-
lar angle of incidence, called the polarizing angle 6, (also
known as Brewster's angle), at which the reflection coeffi-
cient for the polarization component in the plane of Fig. 44-
FIGURE 44-10. A personal digital assistant (PDA) with a liq- 11 is zero. This means that the beam reflected from the
uid crystal display. glass, although of low intensity, is linearly polarized, with
its plane of polarization perpendicular to the plane of inci-
dence. This polarization of the reflected beam can easily be
ture.* Figure 44-10 shows a common liquid crystal display, verified by analyzing it with a polarizing sheet.
which uses polarized light to form letters and numbers, such as When light is incident at the polarizing angle, the compo-
on watches and calculator displays. The liquid crystal is a ma- nent with polarization parallel to the plane of incidence is en-
terial with stretched molecules like polarizing sheets; however, tirely refracted, while the perpendicular component is partially
the long direction can be made to follow an applied electric reflected and partially refracted. Thus the refracted beam,
field. The liquid crystal is arranged so that it normally trans-
muts light through the polarizer and analyzer. When the electric Incident
field (from a battery) is applied to certain regions, the mole- unpolarized
cules line up in such a way that no light is transmitted through light
those regions, which form the dark patterns of the display.

|
SAMPLE PROBLEM 44-1. Two polarizing sheets have
their polarizing directions parallel so that the intensity /,, of the
transmitted light is a maximum. Through what angle must either
sheet be turned if the intensity is to drop by one-half?
Solution From Eq. 44-1, since J = Sy , we have

I, = [, cos’ 6
ed

FiGurRe 44-11. Fora particular angle of incidence 6,, the re-

* Por examples of how such models are used to study classical architec-
ture, see “The Architecture of Christopher Wren,” by Harold Dom and flected light is completely polarized. The refracted light is par-
Robert Mark, Scientific American, July 1981, p. 160, and “Gothic Struc- tially polarized. The dots indicate polarization components per-
tural Experimentation,” by Robert Mark and William W. Clark, Scientific pendicular to the plane of the page, and the double arrows indicate
American, November 1984, p. 176. polarization components parallel to the plane of the page.
1004 CHAPTER 44 / POLARIZATION

i
Incident
unpolarized SAMPLE PROBLEM 44-2. We wish to use a plate of glass
light (fn = 1.50) in air as a polarizer. Find the polarizing angle and the
angle of refraction.
Light polarized normal to page
Solution From Eq. 44-3
@, = tan™' 1.50 = 56.3°.

The angle of refraction follows from Snell's law:

sin #, = msin 6,,

sin 56.3"
sin # = 150 =0.555 or @ = 33.7".

Light almost polarized

in plane of page 44-4 DOUBLE REFRACTION
Figure 44-12. Polarization of light by a stack of glass plates.
In earlier chapters we assumed that the speed of light, and
Unpolarized light is incident at the angle @,. All reflected waves
are polarized perpendicular to the plane of the page. After passing thus the index of refraction, is independent of the direction
through several layers, the transmitted wave no longer contains of propagation in the medium and of the state of polariza-
any appreciable component polarized perpendicular to the page. tion of the light. Liquids, amorphous solids such as glass,
and crystalline solids having cubic symmetry normally
show this behavior and are said to be optically tsetropic.
which is of high intensity, is partially polarized. If this re-
Many other crystalline solids are optically anisotropic (that
fracted beam passed out of the glass into the air and were then
is, not isotropic).* Optical anisotropy is responsible for the
incident on a second glass surface (again at angle @,), the per-
stress pattern illustrated in Fig. 44-9, although in this case
pendicular component would be reflected, and the refracted
the material is not crystalline.
beam would have a slightly greater polarization. By using a
Figure 44-13, in which a polished crystal of calcite
stack of glass plates, we obtain reflections from successive
(CaCO;) is laid over a printed pattern, shows the optical
surfaces, and we can increase the intensity of the emerging re-
flected beam (see Fig. 44-12). The perpendicular components
are progressively removed from the transmitted beam, making * Solids may be anisotropic in many properties: mechanical (mica cleaves
it more completely polarized in the plane of Fig. 44-12. readily in one plane only), electric (a cube of crystalline graphite does not
have the same electric resistance between all pairs of opposite faces), mag-
At the polarizing angle it is found experimentally that
netic (a cube of crystalline nickel magnetizes more readily in certain direc-
the reflected and the refracted beams are at right angles, or tions than in others), and so forth.
(Fig. 44-11)
a+ & = 90°.
From Snell's law,

n, sin @, = mz sin 6,.

Combining these equations leads to

n, sin 6, = nz sin (90° — 6,) = nz cos 6,

or
Ns
tan#, = —,
p n (44-2)

where the incident beam is in medium | and the refracted

SSSeseoes
beam in medium 2. If medium | is air (n, = 1), this be-
comes
tan a, = Hn, (44-3)
FIGURE 44-13. A view through a birefringent crystal, show-
where n is the index of refraction of the medium on which ing the two images that result from the two different indices of re-
the light is incident. Equation 44-2 is known as Brewster's fraction. The double images can be seen where there is no strip of
law after Sir David Brewster (1781—1868), who deduced it polarizing material. The polarization axis of each strip is parallel
empirically in 1812. It 1s possible to prove this law rigor- to its long direction. Note that the two images have perpendicular
ously from Maxwell's equations (see also Question 13). polarizations.
 44-4 DOUBLE REFRACTION 1005

anisotropy of this material; the image appears double. Fur- Principal Indices of Refraction of Several
thermore, the two images show perpendicular polarizations, TABLE 44-1 Doubly Refracting Crystals"
as indicated in Fig. 44-14, which shows a beam of unpolar- Crystal Formula n,, n, n,— A,
ized light falling on a calcite crystal at right angles to one of
Ice H:0 1.309 1.313 +0.004
its faces. The single beam splits into two at the crystal surface.
Quartz S10, 1.544 1.553 +0.009
The “double-bending” of a beam transmitted through calcite, Wurzite “nS 2.356 2.378 +0.022
exhibited in Figs. 44-13 and 44-14, is called double refraction Calcite CaCO, 1.658 1.486 —0.172
or birefringence. This phenomenon was studied by Huygens, Dolomite CaO-MgO0-2C0, 1.681 1.500 —0.181
who described it in his Treatise on Light published in 1678. Siderite Fe0-CO, 1.875 1.635 —0.240
If the two emerging beams in Fig. 44-14 are analyzed
" For sodium light, A = 589 nm.
with a polarizing sheet, they are found to be linearly polar-
ized with their planes of vibration at right angles to each
other. Figure 44-13 shows that each of the two crossed polar- The quantities 2, and n, are called the principal indices
izers transmits only one of the two images (but not the other). of refraction for the crystal. Problem 7 suggests how to
Some doubly refracting materials are strongly absorbing measure them. Table 44-1 shows these indices for six dou-
for one polarization component, whereas the other passes bly refracting crystals. For three of them the e-wave is
through with little absorption. Such materials are called slower; for the other three it is faster than the o-wave. Some
dichroic. Polarizing sheets are examples of dichroic material. doubly refracting crystals (such as mica and topaz) are
If experiments are carried out at various angles of inci- more complex optically than calcite and require three prin-
dence, one of the beams in Fig. 44-14 (represented by the or- cipal indices of refraction for a complete description of
dinary ray, or o-ray) is found to obey Snell's law of refraction their optical properties. Crystals whose basic structure is
at the crystal surface, just like a ray passing from one cubic (such as NaCl; see Fig. 43-15) are optically isotropic,
isotropic medium into another. The second beam (represented requiring only one index of refraction.
by the extraerdinary ray, or e-ray) does not obey Snell's law. The behavior for the speeds of the two waves traveling
In Fig. 44-14, for example, the angle of incidence for the inci- in calcite is summarized by Fig. 44-15, which shows two
dent light is zero but the angle of refraction of the e-ray, con- Huygens wave surfaces spreading out from an imaginary
trary to the prediction of Snell’s law, is nonzero. In general, point light source § imbedded in the crystal. The charac-
the e-ray does not even lie in the plane of incidence. teristic direction in the crystal in which v, = v, 1s called
This difference between the waves represented by the o- the optic axis. The optic axis is a property of the crystal it-
and ¢-rays with respect to Snell's law can be explained in self and is independent of the polarization or direction of
these terms: propagation of the light. The speeds are most different in
1. The o-wave travels in the crystal with the same speed a direction perpendicular to the optic axis; in that direc-
v, in all directions. In other words, the crystal has, for this tion the e-wave and e-wave surfaces have their greatest
wave, a single index of refraction n,, just like an isotropic separation.
solid. The o-wave surface in Fig. 44-15 is a sphere, because
2. The e-wave travels in the crystal with a speed that the medium is isotropic for o-waves. The e-wave surface
varies with direction from v, to v,. In other words, the in- cannot be spherical, because the speed of the e-wave varies
dex of refraction, defined as c/v, varies with direction from with direction relative to the optic axis. The e-wave surface
H, t0-n,. is an ellipsoid of revolution about the optic axis.

| Optic
l axis

o-ray (polarized)

71s
o-Wave surface
e-wave surface

Incident light
(unpolarized)
ee e-Tay
(polarized)

FiGure 44-14. Unpolarized light falling on a birefringent Calcite

material (such as a calcite crystal) splits into two components, the
o-ray (which follows Snell's law of refraction) and the e-ray
(which does not follow Snell's law). The two refracted rays have FIGURE 44-15. Huygens wave surfaces produced by a point
perpendicular polarizations, as shown. source § imbedded in calcite.
1006 CHAPTER 44 / POLARIZATION

¥ Linearly in the xz plane, these waves can represent the perpendicular

— polarized light polarization states of the o-wave and e-wave, and they travel
at different speeds through the slab. The two polarization

\ AAA
states shown below the slab in Fig. 44-16 represent E fields

AY
that were originally part of the same wavefront before pass-
ing through the slab; after passing through the slab, there is
45°
a phase difference between them that depends on the thick-
f =
ness of the slab and on its two indices of refraction.
LEG Let us choose the thickness of the slab so that this phase

é
iS difference is 90°; that is, one component has its maximum
magnitude where the other compound has zero amplitude.
°
g~—— (Because the indices of refraction vary with wavelength,
i Circularly this thickness will likewise vary with the wavelength of the
ZL polarized light light.) In this case the slab is called a quarter-wave plate,
v because 90° represents 1/4 of a full cycle of oscillation.
Figure 44-17 shows the two perpendicular polarization
Xx
states 90° out of phase as they emerge from the quarter-
FiGuURE 44-16. Linearly polarized light falls on a doubly re- wave plate. At any point, the net electric field is the vector
fracting slab cut with its optic axis parallel to the surface. The sum of these two components. As the wave travels, the di-
plane of polarization makes an angle of 45° with the optic axis. rection of this net electric field appears to rotate about the
Two polarization states that were in phase before entering the slab direction of propagation (the x axis in Fig. 44-17). From the
are out of phase when they emerge from this slab. perspective of a point on the x axis, the tip of this net E
field traces out a circle about the x axis; for this reason this
type of wave is called a circularly polarized wave. In con-
44-5 CIRCULAR POLARIZATION trast to a plane-polarized wave, in which the direction of
polarization is fixed, here the direction of polarization
Figure 44-16 shows a linearly polarized wave incident on a changes in a continuous way as the wave travels. This rota-
thin slab of a birefringent material such as calcite. The wave tion of the direction of polarization takes place with an an-
travels in the x direction, which is perpendicular to the face gular frequency w = 2af, where f is the frequency of the
of the slab (the yz plane). The material has been cut so that electromagnetic wave. Because light waves have frequen-
the optic axis is parallel to the face of the slab. We choose cies in the range of 10'° Hz, this rotation is too rapid to be
the plane of polarization to be at an angle of 45° with the observed directly.
optic axis, so that the components of the E field along the As the wave moves past an observer facing the oncom-
axis and perpendicular to the axis have equal amplitudes. ing light and located at a fixed point on the x axis in Fig.
As we illustrated in Fig. 44-15, the direction perpendicu- 44-17, the E vector appears to rotate clockwise, which is
lar to the optic axis is the one in which the speeds of the o- called right-circular polarization. By changing the orienta-
wave and e-wave differ by the greatest amount. We also tion of the incident linear polarization relative to the optic
know that the polarizations of the o-wave and e-wave are axis in Fig. 44-16, we can produce a situation in which the
perpendicular to one another. If we resolve the incident E vector appears to rotate in the opposite direction, which
wave into two waves, one polarized in the xy plane and one is Called left-circular polarization.

FIGURE 44-17. Two waves of equal ampli-

tude and linearly polarized in perpendicular di-
rections move in the x direction. Only the E vec-
tors are shown. The waves differ in phase by 90°,
such that one reaches its maximum when the
other is zero. The resultant E vector appears to
rotate clockwise with time to an observer at a
fixed location on the x axis.
 44-5 CIRCULAR POLARIZATION 1007

As in the case of unpolarized light, when circularly polar- This plate is rather thin. Most quarter-wave plates are made from
ized light falls on a polarizing sheet, the emerging light is mica; the sheet 1s split to the correct thickness by trial and error.
plane polarized and has half the intensity of the incident
ll
light. A polarizing sheet therefore cannot be used to distin- SAMPLE PROBLEM 44-4. A linearly polarized light wave
guish between unpolarized and circularly polarized light. To of amplitude £,, falls on a calcite quarter-wave plate with its plane
make this distinction, we can simply reverse the experiment of polarization at 45° to the optic axis of the plate, which is taken
of Fig. 44-16: if circularly polarized light is incident on a as the y axis; see Fig. 44-18. The emerging light will be circularly
quarter-wave plate, another 90° phase difference will be in- polarized. In what direction will the electric vector appear to ro-
troduced, which (depending on the orientation of the axis of tate? The direction of propagation 1s out of the page.
the quarter-wave plate) will either add to or subtract from the Solution The wave component whose vibrations are parallel to
original 90° phase difference to give a phase difference of ei- the optic axis (the ¢ wave) can be represented as it emerges from
ther 0 or 180°. As a result, the two components reach their the plate as
maxima at the same time, and the emerging light is linearly I
E, = (E, cos 45°) sin wt = o E, sin wt = E,, sin wt.
polarized at an angle of +45° with the optic axis. We could 2
demonstrate this linear polarization by passing the light The wave component whose vibrations are at right angles to the
through a polarizing sheet and rotating the sheet to show that optic axis (the o-wave) can be represented as
the intensity goes to zero when the axis of the sheet makes an l
angle of 45° with the optic axis of the quarter-wave plate. E. = (E, sin 45°) sin (wt — 90°) = “at
.
Ey, cos wt
2
7” = —E£,, cos wit,
SAMPLE PROBLEM 44-3. A quartz quarter-wave plate is
to be used with sodium light (A = 589 nm). What is the minimum the 90° phase shift representing the action of the quarter-wave
thickness of such a plate? plate. Note that F. reaches its maximum value one-fourth of a cy-
cle later than Ey does, because, in calcite, wave E. (the o-wave)
Solution Two waves travel through the slab at speeds correspond- travels slower than wave E£, (the e-wave).
ing to the two principal indices of refraction given in Table 44-1 To decide the direction of rotation, let us locate the up of the
(mn, = 1.553 and n, = 1.544). If the crystal thickness is x, the rotating electric vector at two instants of time, (Fig. 44-l8a) rt = 0
number of wavelengths of the first wave contained in the crystal is and (Fig. 44-15) a short time r, later chosen so that wr, is a small
x xn, angle. At tr = 0 the coordinates of the tip of the rotating vector
N.==—=H ;
7 A e
A (see Fig. 44-1 8a) are
where A, is the wavelength of the e-wave in the crystal and A is E,=0 and £, = —E,-
the wavelength in air. For the second wave, the number of wave-
lengths is Att = 1, these coordinates become, approximately,
a * _ ms
oa A, A 4 E, = E,, sin ow; = Eat),

where A, is the wavelength of the o-wave in the crystal. The dif- FE, = —E,, cos af; = —E,,.
ference NV. — N., must be m + +, where m = 0, l12,.... The Figure 44-185 shows that the vector representing the emerging
minimum thickness corresponds to m = 0, in which case circularly polarized light is rotating counterclockwise; by conven-
| x ( ) tion such light is called /eft-circularly polarized, because the ob-
— A
= —(n,
A c=
— A,).it
server is always considered to face the light source.
This equation yields You should verify that if the plane of vibration of the incident
light in Fig. 44-18% is rotated through +90°, the emerging light will
A 389 nm
x = = = 0.016 m. be right-circularly polarized.
4(n,—n,) (4)(1.553 — 1.544) mm

FIGURE 44-18. Sample Problem 44-4. Lin-

early polarized light falls (from behind the page)
on a quarter-wave plate. The incident light is po-
larized at 45° with the y and z axes. (a) At a par-
Incident + wt, ticular time ¢ = 0, the emerging E vector points
light
in the —z direction. (6) A short interval of time
7

‘m|

mn

t, later the vector has rotated to a new position.

le

N ih or In this case the E vector rotates counterclock-

wise, as seen by an observer on the x axis facing

>|
Nh the light source.

®*
(a) (6)
1008 CHAPTER 44 / POLARIZATION

dent wave and the radiations from the oscillating electrons.

The resultant wave has a maximum intensity in the direc-
o a, tion of the incident beam, falling off rapidly on either side.
VV VV WP The lack of sideways scattering, which would be essentially
complete in a large “perfect” crystal, comes about because
Light Polarizer Optically active Analyzer the oscillating charges in the medium act cooperatively or
Source material
coherently.
Figure 44-19. An optically active material rotates the direc- When light passes through a liquid or a gas, we find
tion of polarization of linearly polarized light through an angle @. much more sideways scattering. The oscillating electrons in
this case, being separated by relatively large distances and
not being bound together in a rigid structure, act indepen-
Optical Activity dently rather than cooperatively. Thus a rigid cancellation
When linearly polarized light passes through certain mate- of wave disturbances that are not in the forward direction is
rials, we find that the plane of polarization rotates about the less likely to occur; there is more sideways scattering.
direction of propagation through an angle that depends on Light scattered sideways from a gas can be wholly or
the properties of the material and on the distance through partially polarized, even though the incident light is unpo-
the material that the light travels. This effect is called opti- larized. Figure 44-20 shows an unpolarized beam moving
cal activity, and the materials are known as optically active. upward on the page and striking a gas atom at O. The elec-
Quartz crystals and sugar solutions are examples of opti- trons at Q oscillate in response to the electric components
cally active materials. Figure 44-19 shows an example of of the incident wave, their motion being equivalent to two
how this rotation might be measured. The polarizer and an- oscillating dipoles whose axes are in the y and z directions
alyzer can be carefully aligned when there is no material at O. For transverse electromagnetic waves, an oscillating
present between them; when the optically active material is dipole does not radiate along its own axis. Thus an observer
present, the angle @ by which the analyzer must rotate for at O' would receive no radiation from the dipole at 0 oscil-
maximum transmission gives the rotation of the plane of lating in the z direction. The radiation reaching O' would
polarization in passing through the material. come entirely from the dipole at O oscillating in the y di-
We can consider plane polarized light to be a superposi- rection and would be linearly polarized in the y direction.
tion of left- and right-circularly polarized light. Imagine As observer O' moves off the z axis, the radiation be-
one E vector rotating clockwise and another rotating coun- comes less than fully polarized, because the dipole at O os-
terclockwise, so that their vector sum (which is always cillating along the z axis can radiate somewhat in these di-
along the bisector of the angle between them) simply oscil- rections. At points along the x axis, the transmitted (x > 0)
lates back and forth along the same direction. In passing or backscattered (x < Q) radiation is unpolarized, because
through an optically active material, one circular polariza- both dipoles can radiate equally well in the x direction.
tion component moves at a greater speed than the other. A familiar example of this effect is the scattering of
This causes a change in the relative phase of the two com- sunlight by the molecules of the Earth’s atmosphere. If the
ponents, and as a result the direction of their vector sum is atmosphere were not present, the sky would appear black
altered. This effect is directly proportional to the distance
traveled through the material.
Many optically active materials are organic liquids. Or-
ganic compounds derived from plants and animals often
have asymmetric helical structures, and when light passes Scattered
polarized wave

_ ess
through such materials the shape of the molecule enhances
the passage of one circular polarization component relative
ase Ss
me
oF

to the other. On the other hand, it is possible to synthesize

organic compounds from nonliving materials, in which case
they contain equal amounts of the two asymmetric helical
forms. Such materials are found not to be optically active.
/ : | Incident
A unpolarized
44-6 POLARIZATION BY
SCATTERING :

A light wave, falling on a transparent solid, causes the elec-

A
trons in the solid to oscillate periodically in response to the FIGURE 44-20. An unpolarized incident wave 1s scattered by
time-varying electric vector of the incident wave. The wave an atom at QO. The wave scattered toward O' on the z axis is lin-
that travels through the medium is the resultant of the inci- early polarized.
 44-6 POLARIZATION BY SCATTERING 1009

except in the direction of the Sun, as observed by astronauts only transverse, as in Fig. 44-20, the radiation propagated
orbiting above the atmosphere. We can easily check with a to O' is linearly polarized. The question as to the transverse
polarizer that the light from the cloudless sky is at least par- nature of the radiation is thus equivalent to determining
tially polarized. This fact is used in polar exploration in the whether the radiation traveling to O' is polarized or unpo-
solar compass. In this device we establish direction by not- larized.
ing the nature of the polarization of the scattered sunlight. There is another way to make this determination. Let us
As is well known, magnetic compasses are not useful in place a second scatterer at O'. A dipole at O' will oscillate
these regions. It has been learned* that bees orient them- in response to the incident (polarized) wave in only one di-
selves in their flights between their hive and the pollen rection (the y' direction, that of the incident E vector, as
sources by means of polarization of the light from the sky; shown in Fig. 44-21). Radiation scattered by that dipole can
bees’ eyes contain built-in polarization-sensing devices. travel in the +x' directions, but (for transverse radiation)
It still remains to be explained why the light scattered not in the y' direction. Thus a detector D measuring the in-
from the sky is predominantly blue and why the light re- tensity of the radiation should see a maximum in the =.’
ceived directly from the Sun—particularly at sunset when directions and a minimum of zero intensity in the +y’' di-
the length of the atmosphere that it must traverse is great- rection. Such an experiment, as illustrated in Fig. 44-21, 1s
est—is red. The cross section of an atom or molecule for called a double scattering experiment. Note that the polar-
light scattering depends on the wavelength, blue light being ization of the radiation scattered by the first target is deter-
scattered more effectively than red light. Since the blue mined through the intensity of the radiation scattered by the
light is more strongly scattered, the transmitted light has the second target. If the radiation traveling to O' were not po-
color of normal sunlight with the blues largely removed; it larized (and not purely transverse), then the detector D
is therefore more reddish in appearance. would record the same intensity in all directions.
The conclusion that the scattering cross section for blue We can establish the transverse nature of electromag-
light is higher than that for red light can be made reason- netic radiation either by measuring the polarization of the
able with a mechanical analogy. An electron in an atom or radiation scattered from the first target (as shown in Fig.
molecule is bound there by strong restoring forces. It has a 44-20) or the intensity distribution of radiation scattered
definite natural frequency, like a small mass suspended in from the second target (as shown in Fig. 44-21). For some
space by an assembly of springs. The natural frequency for radiations (such as light), polarization measurements are
electrons in atoms and molecules is usually in a region cor- relatively easy to make, and the double scattering method
responding to violet or ultraviolet light. provides no great advantage. For other radiations (such as
When light is allowed to fall on such bound electrons, it X rays or gamma rays), double scattering is usually the
sets up forced oscillations at the frequency of the incident
light beam. In mechanical resonant systems it is possible to
“drive” the system most effectively if we apply an external
force whose frequency is as close as possible to the natural
resonant frequency. In the case of light, the frequency of
blue light is closer to the natural resonant frequency of the

ot
bound electron than is that of red light. We would expect
the blue light to be more effective in causing the electron to
oscillate, and it is more effectively scattered.

Double Scattering (Optional)

AP a
Experiments similar to that shown in Fig. 44-20 can
| /tS 4
hs

demonstrate that electromagnetic waves must be transverse;

that is, there can be no component of the E vector parallel
to the direction of propagation. Suppose there were such a ag 0 |
component along the direction of the incident wave (the x
direction in Fig. 44-20). Then the electrons at O would os-
| 4
M

cillate in all three directions, and the scattered wave di-

;
Zy
rected toward O' would show all three possible polarization
directions (two transverse and one longitudinal). This radia- f
tion would thus be unpolarized. If the incident radiation is A
Ficure 44-21. The polarized radiation scattered at O can be
scattered by another atom at O'. A detector D measures the inten-
* See “Polarized-Light Navigation by Insects,” by Rudiger Wehner, Scien- sity of the radiation scattered by O' at various locations @ in the
tific American, July 1976, p. 106. x'y" plane.
1010 CHAPTER 44 / POLARIZATION

preferred method. Indeed, following the discovery of x rays 1906 by Charles Barkla, established that x rays, like visible
in 1898, there was speculation on whether they were waves light, were transverse in nature and helped to confirm that x
or particles. A double scattering experiment, performed in rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

M ULTIPLE CHOICE

44-1 Polarization of Electromagnetic Waves (A) 0 (B) (0.1) (C) (0.9)"" (D) (0.1)’
44-2 Polarizing Sheets (b) The polarized incident light is replaced with unpolarized
1. A vertically oriented, ideal polarizing sheet transmits 50% of light. What fraction of the light intensity now passes through
the incident unpolarized light. The polarizing sheet is now ro- the entire stack?
tated through 45°. What fraction of the incident intensity now (A) 0.05 (B) +(0.1)° (Cc) 5(0.9)° (D) (0.1)°
passes? 6. What would happen to the interference pattern produced from
(A) 0% (B) 30% (C) 100% a twin-slit apparatus if the light from one slit is passed
(D) Ether 0% or 100% through a vertically polarizing sheet and the light through
2. A vertically oriented, ideal polarizing sheet transmits 50% of other slit is passed through a horizontally polarizing sheet?
the incident polarized light. The polarizing sheet is now ro- (A) The interference pattern will look like a normal dou-
tated through 45°. What fraction of the incident intensity now ble-slit pattern.
passes? (B) The interference pattern will be fainter than a normal
(A) 0% (B) 30% (C) 100% double-slit pattern.
(D) Either 0% or 100% (C) The interference pattern will be more diffuse than a
normal double-slit pattern.
3. An ideal polarizing sheet transmits 90% of the incident par-
(D) There will be no interference pattern.
nally polarized light.
(a) What percentage of the incident light 1s polarized? 44-3 Polarization by Reflection
(A) Between 0% and 10% 7. Light reflected from the surface of a road is 3 vertically polar-
(B) Between 0% and 20% ized and 5 horizontally polarized.
(C) Between 80% and 90% (a) At what angle should the polarization direction of a polar-
(D) Between 80% and 100% izing sheet be oriented to provide the maximum reduction in
(E) 100% light intensity?
(b) What fraction of the transmitted light 1s polarized? (A) vertically
(A) Between 0% and 10% (B) 30° from the vertical
(B) Between 0% and 20% (C) 30° from the horizontal
(C) Between 80% and 90% (D) horizontally
(D) Between 80% and 100% (b) What fraction of light passes through the filter if it 1s ori-
(E) 100% ented to provide the maximum reduction in light intensity?
(c) The polarizing sheet is now rotated through 45°; during (A) = (B) + (C) 2 (D) 0
the rotation process the transmitted light monotonically de- % Unpolarnized light strikes an air—water interface at an angle so
creases in intensity. What fraction of the incident intensity that the reflected ray is completely polanzed as shown in Fig.
now passes? 44-224. A second ray of unpolarized light travels backwards,
(A) 0% parallel to the previously refracted ray as shown in Fig. 44-
(B) Between 0% and 50% 226. Describe the polarization of the reflected ray in Fig. 44-
(C) 50% 22 b.
(D) Between 50% and 80% (A) The ray is completely polarized.
(E) Between 40% and 90% (B) The ray is partially polarized.
4. Two ideal polarizing sheets are stacked so that none of the in- (C) The ray undergoes total internal reflection.
cident wipolarized light is transmitted. A third polarizing (D) There is not enough information to answer the ques-
sheet is slipped between the first two sheets at an angle of 45° tion.
to the bottom sheet. The traction of light transmitted through
the entire stack 1s
(A) still zero. (B) 1/8. (C) 1/4. (D) 1/2.
5. Ten polarizing filters are arranged so that the angle A@ be-
Air
tween the polarization direction of any two adjacent filters 1s
the same. This angle is chosen so that each filter allows all but
10% of the light from the previous filter to pass through.
(a) The incident light is polarized with a polarization direc-
(a) (b)
tion Aé@ from the first sheet. What fraction of the light inten-
sity passes through the entire stack? FIGURE 44-22. Muluple-choice question &.
 QUESTIONS 1011

44-4 Double Refraction (B) Itis primarily polarized in an east/west direction.

44-5 Circular Polarization (C) It is primarily polarized in a north/south direction.
(D) There is not enough information to answer this ques-
9. Left-circularly polarized light is reflected from a plane mirror.
tion.
What is the polarization state of the reflected ray?
(A) Left-circularly polarized 11. A beam of light passes through a polarizing filter before being
(B) Right-circularly polarized projected horizontally into a dilute solution of milk in water.
(C) Plane polarized
What orientation of the transmission axis of the polarizing
(D) The answer depends on the angle of incidence.
sheet will maximize the intensity of the scattered light as
viewed from above?
44-6 Polarization by Scattering (A) Vertical (B) Horizontal
10. Look straight up when the sun is on the horizon in the east. (C) The scattered intensity is independent of the polarizing
What polarization state is the blue light from the sky directly direction.
above you? (D) There is not enough information to answer this ques-
(A) It is unpolarized. tion.

UESTIONS
See Sess Ss SS S&S = =

. It is said that light from ordinary sources is unpolarized. Can that (a2) the diameter of the wires and the spacing between
you think of any common sources that emit polarized light’? them must be much less than the incident wavelength to ob-
Light from a laboratory gas discharge tube is unpolarized. tain effective polarization and () the transmitted component
How can this be made consistent with the fact that atoms and is the one whose electric vector oscillates in a direction per-
molecules radiate as electric dipoles whose radiation is lin- pendicular to the wires.
early polarized? 13. Brewster's law, Eq. 44-2, determines the polarizing angle on
Polarizing sheets contain long hydrocarbon chains that are reflection from a dielectric material such as glass; see Fig. 44-
made to line up in a parallel array during the production 11. A plausible interpretation for zero reflection of the parallel
process. Explain how a polarizing sheet 1s able to polarize light. component at that angle is that the charges in the dielectric
(Hint: Electrons are relatively free to move along these chains.) are caused to oscillate parallel to the reflected ray by this
component and produce no radiation in this direction. Explain
As we normally experience them, radio waves are almost al-
this and comment on the plausibility.
ways polarized and visible light is almost always unpolarized.
Why is this so? 14. Explain how polarization by reflection could occur if the light
is incident on the interface from the side with the higher index
What determines the desirable length and orientation of the
of refraction (glass to air, for example).
rabbit ears on a portable TV set?
Why are sound waves unpolarized?
13. Find a way to identify the polarizing direction of a polarizing
sheet. No marks appear on the sheet.
Why do sunglasses made of polarizing materials have a
~

16. Is the optic axis of a doubly refracting crystal simply a line or

marked advantage over those that simply depend on absorp-
a direction in space? Has it a direction sense, like an arrow?
tion effects? What disadvantages might they have?
What about the characteristic direction of a polarizing sheet?
Unpolarized light falls on two polarizing sheets so oriented
that no light is transmitted. If a third polarizing sheet is placed 17. If ice is doubly refracting (see Table 44-1), why do we not see
two images of objects viewed through an ice cube?
between them, can light be transmitted? If so, explain how.
Sample Problem 44-1 shows that, when the angle between the 18. Is it possible to produce interference effects between the o-
beam and the e-beam, which are separated by the calcite crys-
two polarizing directions is turned from 0° to 45°, the inten-
tal from the incident unpolarized beam in Fig. 44-14, by re-
sity of the transmitted beam drops to one-half its initial value.
combining them? Explain your answer.
What happens to this “missing” energy?
10. You are given a number of polarizing sheets. Explain how 19. From Table 44-1, would you expect a quarter-wave plate
made from calcite to be thicker than one made from quartz?
you would use them to rotate the plane of polarization of a
linearly polarized wave through any given angle. How could 20. Does the e-wave in doubly refracting crystals always travel at
you do it with the least energy loss? a speed given by c/n,?
11. In the early 1950s, 3-D movies were very popular. Viewers 21. Devise a way to identify the direction of the optic axis in a
wore polarizing glasses and a polarizing sheet was placed in quarter-wave plate.
front of each of the two projectors needed. Explain how the If linearly polarized light falls on a quarter-wave plate with its
system worked. Can you suggest any problems that may have plane of vibration making an angle of (a) 0° or (b) 90° with
led to the early abandonment of the system? the axis of the plate, describe the transmitted light. (c) If this
12. A wire grid, consisting of an array of wires arranged parallel angle is arbitranly chosen, the transmitted light is called ellip-
to one another, can polarize an incident unpolarized beam of tically polarized; describe such light.
electromagnetic waves that pass through it. Explain the facts 23. You are given an object that may be (a) a disk of grey glass,
 1012 CHAPTER 44 / POLARIZATION

(>) a polarizing sheet, (c) a quarter-wave plate, or (d@) a half- 29. When observing a clear sky through a polarizing sheet, you
wave plate (see Exercise 15). How could you identify it? find that the intensity varies on rotating the sheet. This does
Can a linearly polarized light beam be represented as a sum not happen when viewing a cloud through the sheet. Why?
of two circularly polarized light beams of opposite rotation’? In 1949, it was discovered that light from distant stars in our
What effect does changing the phase of one of the circular galaxy is slightly linearly polarized, with the preferred plane
components have on the resultant beam? of vibration being parallel to the plane of the galaxy. This is
Could a radar beam be circularly polarized? probably due to nonisotropic scattering of the starlight by
a i

elongated and slightly aligned interstellar grains (see Problem

How can a night-circularly polanzed light beam be trans-
16 in Chapter 22). If the grains are oriented with their long
formed into a left-circularly polarized beam”
axes parallel to the interstellar magnetic field lines, as dis-
ZT. A beam of light is said to be unpolarized, linearly polarized, cussed in Section 44-2, and they absorb and radiate electro-
or circularly polarized. How could you choose among them magnetic waves like the oscillating electrons in a radio an-
experimentally? tenna, how must the magnetic field be oriented with respect to
A parallel beam of light is absorbed by an object placed in its the galactic plane?
path. Under what circumstances will (a) linear momentum Sl. Is polarization or interferencea better test for identifying
and (/) angular momentum be transferred to the object? waves? Do they give the same information?

i XERCISES

44-1 Polarization of Electromagnetic Waves preceding sheet. What fraction of the incident intensity ts
1. The magnetic field equations for an electromagnetic wave in transmitted?
free space are B, = B sin (ky + wi), B, = B, = 0. (a) What A beam of light is linearly polarized in the vertical direction.
is the direction of propagation? (>) Write the electric field The beam falls at normal incidence on a polarizing sheet with
equations. (c) Is the wave polarized? If so, in what direction? its polarizing direction at 58.8° to the vertical. The transmit-
Prove that two linearly polarized light waves of equal ampli- ted beam falls, also at normal incidence, on a second polariz-
tude, with their planes of vibration at right angles to each ing sheet with its polarizing direction horizontal. The inten-
other, cannot produce interference effects. (Hint: Prove that sity of the original beam is 43.3 W/m*. Find the intensity of
the intensity of the resultant light wave, averaged over one or the beam transmitted by the second sheet.
more cycles of oscillation, is the same no matter what phase Suppose that in Exercise & the incident beam was unpolar-
difference exists between the two waves.) ized. What now ts the intensity of the beam transmitted by the
44-2 Polarizing Sheets second sheet?

3. A beam of unpolarized light of intensity 12.2 mW/m* falls at 44-3 Polarization by Reflection
normal incidence on a polarizing sheet. (a) Find the maxi- 10. Light traveling in water of index of refraction 1.33 is incident
mum value of the electric field of the transmitted beam. (/) on a plate of glass of index of refraction 1.43. At what angle
Calculate the radiation pressure exerted on the polarizing of incidence is the reflected light completely linearly polar-
sheet. ized?
Unpolarized light falls on two polarizing sheets placed one 11. (a) At what angle of incidence will the light reflected from
on top of the other. What must be the angle between the water be completely polarized? (>) Does this angle depend on
characteristic directions of the sheets if the intensity of the the wavelength of the light?
transmitted light is one-third the intensity of the incident 12. When red light in vacuum ts incident at the polarizing angle
beam? Assume that each polarizing sheet ts ideal—that 1s, on a certain glass slab, the angle of refraction is 31.8°. What
that it reduces the intensity of unpolarized light by exactly are (@) the index of refraction of the glass and ()) the polariz-
50%. ing angle?
Three polarizing plates are stacked. The first and third are 13. Calculate the range of polarizing angles for white light inci-
crossed: the one between has its axis at 45° to the axes of the dent on fused quartz. Assume that the wavelength limits are
other two. What fraction of the intensity of an incident unpo- 400 and 700 nm and use the dispersion curve of Fig. 39-11.
lanized beam is transmitted by the stack?
44-4 Double Refraction
A beam of linearly polarized light strikes two polarizing
14. Linearly polarized light of wavelength 525 nm strikes, at nor-
sheets. The characteristic direction of the second is 90° with
mal incidence, a wurzite crystal that 1s cut with its faces par-
respect to the incident light. The characteristic direction of the
allel to the optic axis. What is the smallest possible thickness
first is at angle @ with respect to the incident light. Find angle
of the crystal if the emergent o- and e-rays combine to form
for a transmitted beam intensity that is 0.100 times the inci-
linearly polarized light? See Table 44-1.
dent beam intensity.
A beam of unpolarized light is incident on a stack of four po- 44-5 Circular Polarization
larizing sheets that are lined up so that the characteristic di- 15. What would be the action of a half-wave plate (that 1s, a plate
rection of each ts rotated by 30° clockwise with respect to the twice as thick as a quarter-wave plate) on (a) linearly polar-
 PROBLEMS 1013

ized light (assume the plane of vibration to be at 45° to the with light of wavelength 488 nm, that could be cut from a
optic axis of the plate), (6) circularly polarized light, and (c) dolomite crystal 0.250 mm thick.
unpolarized light?
16. Find the greatest number of quarter-wave plates, to be used 44-6 Polarization by Scattering

1. Ata particular beach on a particular day near sundown the hor- crystal the E-vector vibrations for one ray are always perpen-
izontal component of the electric field vector is 2.3 times the dicular to the optic axis and for the other ray they are always
vertical component. A standing sunbather puts on polarizing parallel. The two rays are described by the indices n, and n,: in
sunglasses; the glasses suppress the horizontal field compo- this plane, each ray obeys Snell's law.)
nent. (a) What fraction of the light energy received before the
glasses were put on now reaches the eyes? (6) The sunbather,
Incident
still wearing the glasses, lies on his side. What fraction of the
light energy received before the glasses were put on reaches
the eyes now?
2. A beam of light is a mixture of polarized and unpolarized light.
When it is sent through a polarizing sheet, we find that the
transmitted intensity can be varied by a factor of five depend-
ing on the orientation of the polarizing sheet. Find the relative
intensities of these two components of the incident beam.
3. A stack of polarizing sheets is arranged so that the angle be- ,
tween any two adjacent sheets is a. The sheets are arranged so
Optic axis /
that N sheets rotate the plane of polarization by @, where 6 = I! Rayx
Ne. Calculate the fraction of light that will pass through the
stack in the limit as MN — *. Assume that @ is fixed, so a — 0. Ray v
4. It is desired to rotate the plane of vibration of a beam of polar-
FIGURE 44-23. Problem 6.
ized light by 90°. (a) How might this be done using only polar-
izing sheets? (b) How many sheets are required for the total in-
tensity loss to be less than 5.0%? 7. A prism is cut from calcite so that the optic axis is parallel to
>. A polarizing sheet and a quarter-wave plate are glued together the prism edge as shown in Fig. 44-24. Describe how such a
in such a way that, if the combination ts placed with face A prism might be used to measure the two principal indices of re-
against a shiny coin, the face of the coin can be seen when illu- fraction for calcite. (Hint: See hint in Problem 6; see also Sam-
minated by light of appropriate wavelength. When the combi- ple Problem 39-4.)
nation is placed with face A away from the coin, the coin can-
not be seen. (a) Which component is on face A and (b) what is
the relative orientation of the components?
6. A narrow beam of unpolarized light falls on a calcite crystal
cut with its optic axis as shown in Fig. 44-25. (a) For r = 1.12
cm and for @, = 38.8°, calculate the perpendicular distance be-
tween the two emerging rays x and y. (/) Which 1s the o-ray 9
and which is the e-ray? (c) What are the states of polarization Optic axis _/
of the emerging rays? (d¢) Describe what happens if a polarizer
is placed in the incident beam and rotated. (Hint: Inside the FIGURE 44-24. Problem 7.