Optics Material New - CAT - I

Polarization
Introduction:
Interference and diffraction experiments have shown that light is a form of
wave motion. But only the phenomenon of polarization confirmed the transverse
nature of light waves.
The phenomenon of restricting the vibration of a light wave to a particular
direction in a plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation of light is called
polarization of light.
i.e. The phenomenon due to which vibrations of light waves are restricted in a
particular plane is called polarisation.
According to Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, light waves are transverse
in nature with the electric and magnetic field vectors vibrating at right angles to
each other and both are perpendicular to the direction of propagation of light.
Light is represented by the vibrations of electric field vector ( ).
1. Unpolarized light:
In an ordinary light (unpolarized light), vibrations of electric field vector are
in every plane perpendicular to direction of propagation of light.
The propagation of light is represented by electric field vectors vibrating in
the vertical direction in the plane of the paper (arrows) and in the horizontal
direction perpendicular to plane of paper (dots).
2.Plane Polarized light:

The propagation of polarized light is represented by electric field vectors
vibrating in the vertical direction in the plane of the paper (arrows) or by electric
field vectors vibrating in the horizontal direction perpendicular to plane of paper
(dots). Here the vibrations are restricted to only one plane.
If by some methods (reflection, refraction or scattering) a beam of light is
produced in which vibrations are confined to only one plane, then it is called as
plane polarised light. Hence, polarization is the phenomenon of producing plane
polarised light from unpolarised light.
3. Plane of polarization and plane of vibration:

In a plane polarized light, the plane containing the direction of vibration and
direction of propagation of light is called plane of vibration.
The plane which is perpendicular to plane of vibration is called plane of
polarization. It does not contain the direction of vibration but contains the
direction of propagation of light.
Plane ABCD - the plane of vibration

Plane EFGH - the plane of polarization
4. Polarizer:
The device which is used to produce plane polarized light is called Polarizer.
Eg. Nicol prism, quartz, topaz, tourmaline,..
5. Analyser:
The device which is used to examine whether the light is polarized or not is
called Analyser.
Eg. Nicol prism,quartz…
Nicol prism act as a polarizer and analyser.
6.Methods of producing plane polarised light:

Plane polarised or linearly polarised light are produced by
(1) Reflection
(2) Refraction
(3) Double refraction
(4) Selective absorption and
(5) Scattering.
6.1 Polarization by double refraction:
The phenomenon exhibited by certain crystals in which an incident beam is
split into two refracted beams is called double refraction. This property was
discovered by Esmus Bartholinus.
Eg. calcite, quartz, mica etc.
The crystals having this property are said to exhibit birefringence.
When a calcite crystal is placed on a paper having ink mark, two images of
ink mark are seen when viewed through the crystal from above. If the crystal is
rotated about the direction of incident beam, one of the images remains stationary
(ordinary image) while the other revolves around the first image (extraordinary
image).
Ordinary Ray (O – Ray) Extra ordinary ray (E - Ray)

Obeys ordinary laws of refraction.(Snell`s It does not obey Snell`s law.
law)
Refractive index remains constant for any Refractive index varies with the angle of
angle of incidence. incidence.
Eg. o =1.66 for calcite Eg. e =1.48 to 1.65 for calcite
The O-ray travels with the same speed in all The E-Ray travels with different speeds in
directions. different directions.
They are plane polarized They are plane polarized.
O-ray is polarised in the plane of principal The E- ray is polarised in a plane
section. perpendicular to the principal section.
7. Optic axis:
The direction along which the O-ray and E-ray travel with the same speed is
called Optic axis. Along optic axis double refraction is not observed.
(i) Uniaxial crystal:- It is a crystal with one optic axis. There are two types of
uniaxial crystals. They are negative crystals and positive crystals.
E.g. Calcite (negative), quartz (positive), tourmaline etc…
(ii) Biaxial crystal: It has two optic axes.
E.g. Selenite, mica etc…
8. Huygen`s Explanation of double refraction:
1. Huygen treated the propagation of light in terms of wave surfaces to explain
double refraction.
2. If a point source of light is imagined to be placed within an isotropic
substance like glass, it generates a spherical wave surface (wavefront). This
wavefront stimulates atoms to produce secondary wavelets, all of which are in
phase and expand in all directions with the same velocity.
3. When a beam of light strikes a double refracting crystal, two wave surfaces
(wavefronts) are formed simultaneously corresponding to the two refracted
rays. One wavefront is for O-ray and other for E-ray.
4. O-ray travels with same velocity in all directions and hence its wave surface is
spherical.
5. E-ray travels with different velocities in different directions within the crystal
and its wave surface is ellipsoid.
6. The spherical and elliptical wave surfaces touch at two points. The line
joining these points is called the optic axis.
7. Along the optic axis, both the O and E-rays travel with the same velocity.
8. The two wave surfaces travel in different directions in the crystal and finally
two refracted rays come out of the crystal.
9. If the spherical wave front of O-ray lies within the elliptical wave front of E-
ray, then it is called Negative crystals (because the refractive index of E-ray
is less than that of O-ray) .
Eg. Calcite
10.If the elliptical wave front lies within the ordinary wave front , such crystals
are called Positive crystals ( refractive index of E-ray is greater than that of
O-ray).
Eg. Quartz
11.The characteristics of positive and negative crystals are compared.
Positive crystal Negative crystal
E-ray travels slower than O- O-ray travels slower than E-ray in all
ray in all directions except directions except along the optic axis.
along the optic axis.
e >o e < o
Velocity of E-ray is Velocity of E-ray is minimum along the
maximum along the optic optic axis and a maximum value in a
axis and a minimum value in direction perpendicular to optic axis.
a direction perpendicular to
optic axis.
9.Retarders or wave plates:

Retarders are optical elements used to change the state of polarization of an
incident wave. When a plane polarised light is incident on the retarder, it splits the
light into two plane polarized light waves. Both the waves have some path
difference and when they come out of the retarder, superpose each other to produce
a wave of different state of polarization. Eg. Quartz and Mica.
(Calcite is brittle and difficult to handle in the form of thin slices, so it is not
suitable to make retarders).
TYPES
Quarter Wave
Half wave plate
plate
(a) Quarter wave plate:
(i) A quarter wave plate is a thin plate of double refracting (birefringent)

crystal cut with its faces parallel to its optic axis.
(ii) Its thickness is adjusted to produce a quarter- wave (λ/4) path difference
[phase difference of 90ᵒ] between the ordinary ray(O-ray) and
Extraordinary ray (E-ray).
(iii) When ordinary light is normally incident on the crystal, ordinary and
extraordinary rays are formed. They travel with different velocities and
hence a path difference of λ/4 is developed between them.
(iv) If ‘d’ is the thickness of the crystal, od and ed are the optical paths
travelled by ordinary and extraordinary rays, then
Path difference = (od ~ ed)
= (o ~ e)d ………………(1)
For a quarter wave plate, path difference =λ/4 ………… (2)
Equating (1) and (2),
(o ~ e)d = λ/4
Where
λ is the wavelength of light.
o, e are the refractive indices for ordinary and extraordinary ray.
(v) For positive crystals, thickness of quarter wave plate is
(vi) For negative crystals, thickness of quarter wave plate is
(vii) A quarter wave plate is used to produce elliptically or circularly polarised

light.
(viii) If plane polarised light is incident at an angle of 45 ᵒ (θ=45ᵒ), the quarter
wave plate produces circularly polarised light.
(ix) If plane polarised light is incident at an angle other than 45 ᵒ (θ45ᵒ), the
quarter wave plate produces elliptically polarised light.
(x) If elliptically or circularly polarised light is passed through the quarter wave
plate, plane polarised light is obtained.
(Elliptically polarised light is made up of two coherent plane polarised
waves of different amplitudes differing by 90ᵒ phase. The quarter wave plate
introduces an additional phase difference of 90ᵒ leading to a total of 180ᵒ
phase difference between them. When they come out of the plate, they
combine to form linearly polarised light wave).
(b) Half wave plate:
(i) A Half wave plate is a thin plate of double refracting (birefringent)

crystal cut with its faces parallel to its optic axis.
(ii) Its thickness is adjusted to produce a path difference of λ/2 [phase difference
of π] between the ordinary ray (O-ray) and Extraordinary ray (E-ray).
(iii) When ordinary light is normally incident on the crystal, ordinary and
extraordinary rays are formed. They travel with different velocities and
hence a path difference of λ/2 is developed between them.
(iv) If ‘d’ is the thickness of the crystal, od and ed are the optical paths
travelled by ordinary and extraordinary rays, then
Path difference = (od ~ ed)
= (o ~ e)d ………………(1)
For a Half wave plate, path difference =λ/2 …………… (2)
Equating (1) and (2),
(o ~ e)d = λ/2
Where
λ is the wavelength of light.
o, e are the refractive indices for ordinary and extraordinary ray.
(v) For positive crystals, thickness of quarter wave plate is
(vi) For negative crystals, thickness of quarter wave plate is
(vii) Half wave plate is used to rotate the plane of polarization of the incident
plane polarised light.(i.e) the handedness of elliptically or circularly
polarised light are changed from right to left and vice versa.
**************

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Polarization

2.Plane Polarized light:

3. Plane of polarization and plane of vibration:

Plane ABCD - the plane of vibration

Nicol prism act as a polarizer and analyser.

6.Methods of producing plane polarised light:

Ordinary Ray (O – Ray) Extra ordinary ray (E - Ray)

Positive crystal Negative crystal

9.Retarders or wave plates:

(a) Quarter wave plate:

(i) A quarter wave plate is a thin plate of double refracting (birefringent)

(vii) A quarter wave plate is used to produce elliptically or circularly polarised

(i) A Half wave plate is a thin plate of double refracting (birefringent)

(vi) For negative crystals, thickness of quarter wave plate is

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