Department of Physics, Weber State University

PHYS 3190, Applied Optics Lab

Experiment #12

Polarization
Revised 11/16/09

Goals: We will explore the effects of polarization and polarizers. You should have a good sense of how polarized light is produced and affected by various materials such as glass, crystals, Earths atmosphere, etc. Much of this lab is purely observational, take advantage of it and try to think through what you are seeing. Equipment: Green or red light source White light source diode laser Thor Labs optical power meter box with misc. items to test optical activity calcite crystals

polarizer filters plano lens as a glass sample (in mount) a standard lens optical rail Optional digital camera to record optical activity

Handling and Safety Notes: Nothing special beyond using normal care in handling equipment. Procedure: Part I, Explore polarization and have some fun. Experiment with the polarizers a bit. Look through one while looking at some glare off of the floor or table, rotate the polarizer while doing this. Look through two polarizers at the room lights, rotate the polarizers relative to each other. Step outside and look at the sky (which is the classic scattering medium) through the polarizer while rotating it. Make sure you look at different parts of the sky. If there are any clouds, what do they do? Record and explain your observations. The explanation is key here. Anyone can observe things, but true science seeks to understand things. Use concepts such as Brewsters angle (and about what that angle is), polarization by scattering (and what happens at what angles and why) and Maluss law to explain what you see in scientific terms. You should end up with a few paragraphs in your report about your observations. Part II: Measurement of index of refraction via Brewster's angle. Brewster's angle, also called the polarization angle, is related to the index of refraction as

Hence, if we can determine the polarization angle, then we have a nearly direct measurement of the index of refraction of the material. Your goal is to adjust the angle of incidence to locate the position where the reflected beam has very little intensity for polarization in the plane of incidence. (I.e., the transverse magnetic (TM) component is minimized and the transverse electric (TE) component of polarization is maximized.) See Figure 1. Use the diode laser for this task. Diode lasers are polarized. Notice that surrounding the main
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beam is some stray light with random polarization, if you keep a polarizer in front of the laser while making the adjustments you can omit this distracting stray light. (Spurious light in laser beams is called ASM = Amplified Spontaneous Emission, all lasers have some ASM.) Adjust the laser and polarizer pair such that the bright center spot has its polarization exactly in the plane of incidence, i.e., such that the laser beam is in the TM mode. For your glass sample, use the plano side of one of the lenses. Mount the lens in its mount and mount that on the rotation stage. Adjust the stage to zero degrees and make sure the lens is adjusted so that the back reflection from the first surface goes back on the laser. Calculate in advance where you expect to find Brewsters Angle and rotate the stage to approximately this angle to start. Slowly rotate the glass plate while observing the irradiance of the spot on the screen. The point where it disappears is fairly tight and easy to miss. You can double check the angle shown on the rotation stage by using trigonometry to determine the angle. Using trig and measuring the sides of the triangle will easily (and fairly quickly) provide you with accurate measurements to a fraction of a degree. (Think carefully about your significant figures as you do this.) Look up the index of refraction in the Schott Optical Glass data book in the lab. Note: The binder is Figure 1. Measuring polarization angle to dumb, please be careful when turning the pages. Look determine the index of refraction (not to scale). Mount the glass sample on the rotating table up the index for several glass types. A very common glass is BK7. Notice that the index of refraction depends with the degree measurements. Use the plano side of a plano-convex or plano-concave lens as on the wavelength. Question 1: What do you get for an experimental value your glass sample. for the index of refraction for the sample? How accurate do you think your value is? Why? How does that agree with the values you found in the optical catalog? What type of glass do you think this might be? Part III: Optical activity. When injected plastic is molded into shape and cooled, stresses caused by uneven cooling are frozen into place inside the plastic. Usually, these stresses are not visible to the eye. During the following activity we will observe both these frozen stresses and induced stress. In actual practice, models of structures are constructed and placed under mechanical stress that simulates actual conditions. The model is then Figure 2. Experimental system for viewing optical activity. Chose a viewed with polarized light and the stresses are analyzed. white light source that will illuminate most or all of the field of view through the polarizers, the big light bulb should work OK.
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Set up two crossed polarizers about 20 cm apart. Refer to Figure 2. If you have the option available, get a digital camera ready to look through the polarizer to document your observations with some still images. In some cases you will want to save the images and print them out on a color printer. Take some clear plastic item, such as a french curve (the wavy plastic curve drawing tool), and hold it between the two polarizers. Describe what you see. Take a picture of it or make a sketch. Label your sketch or image carefully. Look around for various plastic items and look at them between the crossed polarizers. A plastic sandwich bag or piece of plastic wrap is interesting to observe while stretching it between your fingers. The glass plate with the clear tape on it is interesting. When the tape is extruded it becomes anisotropic. By stacking tape you can make different thicknesses and get something like a QWP and HWP out of it. Note what happens in the areas where the tape crosses at 90E, think carefully about what you think might be happening here. Next hold the "U" shaped piece of plexiglass between the crossed polarizers. Gently squeeze the arms of the "U" towards each other while observing the arms and the bottom of the "U." Describe what you see using a digital image or careful sketch, make sure you label your figure. The next thing we want to observe is optical activity in crystals. In particular, we will observe the effects of polarization on calcite, mica, and liquid crystals. Optical activity in calcite, also known as Iceland spar, was first observed in 1669 by Erasmus Bartholinus (1625-1692). This is also the origin of the terms "ordinary" and "extraordinary" rays. The ordinary ray is the ray that passes straight through the crystal, the extraordinary ray is refracted and travels at an angle to the ordinary ray. In the case of the mica, the crystal acts like a poor quality wave plate. The various wavelengths that are incident on mica are shifted by different amounts. The result is that any given point on the mica will shift a particular color such that it will pass through the 2nd polarizer. The visual effect of mica between polarizers is quite spectacular. Hold one or more pieces of mica between the two Figure 3. Target dots for calcite. crossed polarizers. Make sure you rotate and tip the sheet of mica in all directions. Question 2: What is happening to the light going through the mica? What causes this? At this point, you no longer need the optical rail with the crossed polarizers until you get to Part IV. Remove the polarizers or use a different pair for the next few observations. Place a piece of calcite on a piece of paper with words printed on it. Rotate the calcite crystal and observe whats happening. For clarity, try it again on a single dot such as one of the ones in Figure 3. Rotate a polarizer above the crystal while watching the ordinary and extraordinary images. Question 3: Describe and explain what you see. Draw a side-view sketch of the rays going through the crystal and note the polarization of the two different rays. Finally, liquid crystal displays work on a principle of polarization. The applied electrical field causes the Figure 4. Testing an LCD displays crystal to act as a broadband wave plate. The external polarization properties. Note: Try using one electrical field causes the long organic molecules that polarizer at a time and then both.
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comprise the liquid crystal to line up in a spiral fashion. This rotates the plane of polarization of the incident light. Upon reflection off a mirror on the back of the display the returning light is subjected to a built in polarizer which blocks the light causing that part of the display to appear dark. Using some item with an LCD display such as either your calculator or wristwatch, or one of the DMMs in the lab -- investigate the effects of polarization on the display. See Figure 4. Make sure that you rotate each polarizer relative to the display. Whats happening is that the liquid crystal acts like a half wave plate that can be turned on and off electrically. Record your observations in your report. A few quick sketches would probably help. Part IV: Malus' Law: Malus' Law states that the transmission of linearly polarized light by a polarizer is related to the relative angle between the direction of polarization of the light and the direction of polarization of the polarizer. In particular,

Our next activity will be to observe this prediction. Note that these polarizers do not work well with infrared radiation. IR will pass right through them with very little polarization occurring. 1) Set up the system shown in Figure 5. 2) Block all light going into the detector so that you can verify that zero is truly zero. Make all subsequent measurements relative to this zero level. The room will need to be darkened for this to work correctly, but not completely dark. Just make sure no stray light is in view of the detector. 3) Adjust the diode laser and first polarizer so that their polarizations are aligned and both vertical. Measure the optical power (dont forget to set the wavelength for the meter) with only the first polarizer in place. This is I1. Insert the second polarizer set to 0E Figure 5. Maluss law experimental set up. from the first. Measure the optical power, let this Make sure you align the first polarizer and the measured value be I2,0. Note, that it will have dropped diode laser so as to maximize the throughput at even though Malus Law says it shouldnt. This drop the first polarizer. is caused by the absorption of the polarizer material. Leave the first polarizer at zero and observe what happens as you adjust the second polarizer in 15E steps until you reach 90E. 4) Create a data table to record your observations showing your measured values and your expected values for a system obeying Maluss Law. Reference your calculations on I2,0 as the cos(0) point. Question 4: How well did your results match Maluss Law? How might you explain any differences? (Hint: Think about your homework problems from class.) 5) Setup two crossed polarizers (90o between transmission axes) and verify that the total transmitted light is at a minimum. 6) Insert a third polarizer between the two crossed polarizers with its transmission axis rotated at about 45E between the other two. Look through it and also measure the irradiance at the detector. Question 5: What happened? Why? Use Maluss Law for the three polarizers in series, does it agree with your measurement? How can you account for any error?

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PHYS 3190, Polarization