Polarization Maneesha Wijesinghe

Introduction Polarization is a property of waves that describes the orientation of their oscillations. Procedure Polarization and the law of Malus The polarizer was aimed at a shining object (sheen on the floor, a piece of metal) and was rotated about an axis perpendicular to its plane. The transmission axis was determined by observing the object through the polarizer, where the object appears darkest when the polarizer is in its transmission angle. According to Brewsters law, , which means that at the polarization angle (Brewsters angle) the reflected rays and the refracted rays will be separated by an angle of 90. Therefore when, unpolarized light incidence on the polarizer at the polarizing angle, most of it would transmit as slightly polarized light while the perfectly polarized light reflects and come to your eye. Thus giving the darkest image. Then two polarizers with known polarization angles were paired to observe the ceiling light. When the polarizer angles were parallel with each other the light was brightest because the maximum light transition occurred. When the angles were perpendicular to each other the light was dimmest because minimum light transition occurred. Before using the laser to take power measurements, the uncertainty of the power measurements was calculated by monitoring the laser output on the power meter for about 4 minutes. An uncertainty was determined based on the power fluctuations for both polarizers. To confirm the assumption that laser light is in fact unpolarized, a polarizer was placed in between the laser beam and power meter detector and the polarizer angle was changed. The power was measured when the polarizer was in its transmission axis and when it was perpendicular to the transmission axis. The power measurements for both angles were quite similar and it proved that the light was transmitting through the polarizer for both angles. This showed that the laser light was unpolarized. Finally using the setup in Fig.1 the law of Malus was verified.

Figure 1. Linear polarizer and analyzer-Malus Law

Here, the polarizer is set up with the axis rotated in an angle from the transmission axis in the z-axis, and the analyzer is set with a vertical transmission axis. The component of the beam that is parallel to the polarizer axis will transmit through it but only the vertical component of this transmission beam will transmit through the analyzer due to the vertical polarization. The irradiance of the light measured by the power detector can be calculated using the following equations and expressions. The equation for irradiance, , where is the transmitted beam through the polarizer. The vertical component of this transmitted beam( beam through the analyzer)( ) ( ) Therefore, the new irradiance measured by the detector, ( ) ( ) giving the law of Malus, Therefore, ( ) is directly proportional to ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) where, Power measurements for each angle were taken and were plotted as ( ) vs. ( )and ( ) vs. ( ) Reflection and the Fresnel equations The following experimental set up was build.

Figure 2. Set-up for the reflectance vs. incidence angle Here, the glass prism was placed on the spectrometer table and was oriented in such a way that the incident laser beam was normal to its surface. Since, for the first part the light incident on the prison was supposed to be on the TM mode, the polarization angle of the polarizer was rotated by 90 from the transmission axis so that the plane of polarization is parallel to the plane of reflection. Then the prism

was rotated in small increments of incident angles and the power measurement for each incident angle was observed by rotating the power meter with it. The rotation was recorded until a minimum light intensity (lowest power measurement) was observed and the incident angle for this measurement was recorded as the Brewsters angle for the prism. The reason for this is that at Brewsters angle the polarized right is perfectly transmitted through the prim giving a minimal reflection. Therefore, giving the reflection with a minimal power. Using the Brewsters law the index of refraction for the prism was calculated. Then using the power meter, the intensity of the reflected light was measured with the respective incident angle for graphing purposes. For the second set of measurements light polarized in the TE mode was required. To polarize the light in the TE mode the plane of polarization was set up to be perpendicular to the plane of reflectance. Therefore, the polarization angle was set up equal to the transmission angle of the polarizer. Similarly, the power of the reflected light as a function of incident angle was recorded. Data Polarizers and the law of Malus Transmission axis of the hand polarizer- 1 Transmission axis of the mounted polarizer- 76 Power meter measurements during a 4 minute period (6.37, 6.35,6.36,6.40,6.39,6.42)*20W Uncertainty in power meter measurements is estimated as 3W Power measurement when the hand polarizer is in transmission axis (1)-26 W Power measurement when the hand polarizer is perpendicular to the transmission axis (91)-26 W Power measurement when the mounted polarizer is in transmission axis (76)-23.6 W Power measurement when the hand polarizer is perpendicular to the transmission axis (168)-23.2 W Table1. Intensity as a function of , Cos() ,Cos()2 -69 -59 -49 -39 -29 -19 -9 Cos() -1.20 -1.03 -0.86 -0.68 -0.51 -0.33 -0.16 Cos()2 0.13 0.27 0.43 0.60 0.76 0.89 0.98 I() 0.01 0.03 0.07 0.13 0.21 0.29 0.36

1 11 21 31

0.02 0.19 0.37 0.54

1.00 0.96 0.87 0.73

0.42 0.44 0.45 0.41

Figure 1. Intensity Vs. ()

Figure 2. Intensity Vs. Cos()2

Reflection and the Fresnel equations The absolute minimum intensity reading for the detector in TM mode- 152.19 Therefore, the Brewsters angle, P -152.19 According to Brewsters law, tan(P)=nt/ni tan(152.19)=nt/1.003 nt = 0.529 Table2.Intensity of the reflected light as a function of the angle of incidence in TM mode 1.83 1.91 1.99 2.08 2.17 2.29 2.38 2.46 2.55 2.61 2.64 2.69 2.74 2.79 2.84 2.89 2.96 I() 21.5 20 19.5 18.2 16.3 13.3 10 7.8 4.6 3.3 3.2 4.5 9.1 17.9 32.4 59.9 124

Table 3.Intensity of the reflected light as a function of the angle of incidence in TE mode 1.83 1.89 1.95 2.03 2.14 2.23 2.35 I() 21.5 21.9 23.4 25.5 29.6 34.8 43.2

2.42 2.51 2.60 2.68 2.73

55.7 81.3 120.1 162.3 193.7

Conclusion In the first part of the lab the law of Malus was verified using the polarizers. Two ( ). The ( ) vs. graphs were plotted, one ( ) vs. ( ) and the other, ( ) vs. ( ) was a cosine curve therefore and it gave a minimum at approximately ( ) when the axis of the polarizer is perpendicular to the light beam as expected. The maximum occurs somewhere in between 0.2rad and 0.3 rad which is comparatively closer to 0rad where the polarizer axis is parallel to beam of light. ( ) was linear, thus proving the direct The second plot of I( ) vs. ( ) given by the Malus law. proportionality between ( ) and In the second part, A graph of the reectance of polarized light as a function of angle of incidence, as given by the Fresnel Equations was plotted. Here, red corresponds to light polarized perpendicular to the plane of reection (TE mode) and blue corresponds to light polarized parallel to the plane of reection (TM mode). As expected, the parallel curve equaled zero at the Brewsters angle and the perpendicular curve never reached zero.

Figure 3. Reflectance Vs. Incident angle