Polarization Phenomena

Brett Schuessler
Unveristy of Hawaii at Manoa
Physics 480L: Tom Browder
brettsch@hawaii.edu
This lab demonstrated multiple optical phenomena resulting from the polarization of light. Using
the experimentally determined Brewster angle of common BK7 optical glass, the index of refraction
was determined to be 1.5130.0021, within 1 of the accepted value of 1.515. Malus Law of crossed
polarizers was employed to test the linearity of the lab silicon photodiode at output voltages above
2V. The phase shift between s and p polarizations induced by reflection in a mirror was measured to
be 24.35 0.68 . The orientation of the optical ~c axis (extraordinary axis) of birefringent sapphire
sample with respect to the surface normal was experimentally determined to be 27.85 0.67 .

INTRODUCTION

Polarization of light is a rich branch of optics, responsible for many everyday phenomena and useful
in many scientific and commercial applications.[1] It
is postulated that the Vikings employed the birefringence of calcite crystal to find the suns position for
navigational purposes on cloudy days, even the skys
blue color is itself a product of selective light polarization. The analytical study of light polarization

was first expounded upon by Etienne-Louis

Malus, a
French engineer and scientist in the Napoleonic era
who invented many practical applications for light
polarization and is immortalized in the most famous
polarization relation, Malus Law. In contemporary
times, light polarization is ubiquitous - every smartphone, laptop, or other LCD display relies on how
nematic liquid crystals modulate selectively polarized light. Polarizing filters are used extensively in
stress distribution analysis of transparent materials,
from plastics to car windows and beyond.

p
2 sin2 cos
rs = p
2 sin2 + cos

(2)

Subscript p stands for parallel to plane of incidence and subscript s for senkrecht, german for perpendicular, to plane of incidence. The angle the incident light subtends from the surface normal is given
by and = nnti , where nt is the index of refraction seen by the transmitted light, and ni is that
seen by the incident light. The sagittal reflection
coefficient is always necessarily non-zero, but rp = 0
in the case when nt cos i = ni cos t (where i =
in the Fresnel coefficients, for clarity). Using snells
law, ni sin i = nt sin t , we can can rexpress these
two conditions succinctly as:

tan B =

(3)

Where B is known as the Brewster angle - the

particular angle of incidence that satisfies the condition rp = 0.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Brewster Angle

Solving Maxwells Equations with boundary conditions specified by a dielectric interface yields polarization dependent reflection relations known as the
Fresnel coefficients. These coefficients represent the
ratio of the reflected electric field to the incident
electric field for each polarization state:
p
2 sin2 2 cos
rp = p
2 sin2 + 2 cos

(1)

Malus Law

Linearly polarized light passing through a linear

polarizer canted at an angle from the lights polarization axis is a simple vector projection of the
electric field component- full transmittance at = 0
and zero transmittance at = 2 . More concretely:
E = E0 cos . Light intensity is proportional to E 2 ,
so it follows:

comes:
I = I0 cos2

(4)

J 0 = M45 J =






1 a + bei
1 1 1
a
=
2 1 1 bei
2 a + bei

Now conjugate multiplcaiton for the intensites

produces: I+45 = 12 (a2 + b2 ) + ab cos and I45 =
1 2
2
2 (a + b ) ab cos . Using these relations, we can
express the phase shift exclusively in terms of measurable intensities:

Conducting Interfaces

We can represent the time-independent complex

electric field of a propagating electromagnetic wave
generally as:

cos =
E(z) = E0 e

ikz

(5)

I+45 I45
p
2 Ix Iy

(8)

Where k is the wavenumber - given by k = 2n

0 .
When light strikes a metal surface (a mirror for example), free electrons within the conducting surface
cause absorption losses, represented mathematically
as an exponential decay:

Where Ix and Iy are a2 and b2 respectively the perpendicular intensity components of the initial beam.

E(z) = E0 eikz ez

Optically transmissive crystalline structures occasionally posses asymmetric lattice structures that result in different indices of refraction along different
crystal axes. Materials that have the same index of
refraction along two axes, with one axis exhibiting a
variant index of refraction are termed birefringent.
The axes possessing the same indices of refraction
are called ordinary axes and the axis with a different index of refraction is called the extraordinary
axis. The effective index of refraction, ne (), seen
by a beam making an angle with the extraordinary axis is given concisely by the relation:

Birefringence

(6)

Where is the material-dependent attenuation

coefficient. Rexpressing back into the form of Eq.
5, we find:
E(z) = E0 eiz(k+i)

(7)

From this we can see it is convenient within the

framework of familiar analytical tools to represent
attenuation in the form of a complex index of refraction. This causes a relative phase shift between
the s and p components of polarization, which can
be conveniently analyzed in the form of Jones matrices. The most general expression of polarized light
in this form is given by:

1
n2e ()

cos2 sin2
+
n2e
n2o

(9)

PROCEDURE


J=

a
bei


BK7 Brewster Angle

Where a and b represent perpendicular electric

field components (usually Ex and Ey for conceptual simplicity), and the relative phase shift between said components. Determining from intensity measurements of light described by this Jones
vector is impossible because the phase term drops
out during conjugate multiplication. However, if the
light is passed through a polarizer 45 from both the
a and b components, the new polarization state be-

The experimental schematic for the BK7 Brewster

Angle determination is displayed in Figure 1. First
the polarizers following the HeNe laser upstream
from the BK7 sample were adjusted to minimize the
s-polarization hitting the glass. The rotating optical mount was then moved slowly from normal incidence (calibrated to 0 on the mount so the angle of
incidence could be simply read off) while watching
the photodiode output on an oscilloscope until visual
2

confirmation of an intensity minimum was observed.

This intensity minima corresponds to rp = 0, and
the Brewster angle was read off the mount to be
56.46 0.008 .

FIG. 2: Malus Law and Conductive Interface

Experiments: 1) Linear Polarizer, 2) Attenuator, 3)
Chopper, 4) Focusing Lens, 5) Light Shield, 6)
Silicon Photodiode, 7) Linear Polarizer(s) (All solid
blocks are mirrors)
FIG. 1: BK7 Experiment: 1) Linear Polarizer, 2)
Attenuator, 3) Chopper, 4) Focusing Lens, 5) Light
Shield, 6) Silicon Photodiode, 7) Rotating mount
with BK7 glass (All solid blocks are mirrors)

Birefringence

The experimental schematic for the Sapphire birefringence experiment is shown in Figure 3. The sapphires optic axis ~c (extraordinary axis) was known
to deviate from the normal by an angle in the vertical direction, without any deviation from the normal
in the horizontal. Using the relation tan = sin
where is the angle the beam refracted within the
sapphire makes from the normal (related to the
beam angle from the surface normal outside the sapphire by snells law) we determined to precisely
find the orientation of the ~c axis. The sapphire was
then swept across shallow incidence angles looking
for global intensity minima.

Malus Law (Photodiode Linearity Analysis)

The experimental schematic for the the silicon

photodiode linearity analysis using Malus Law is
displayed in Figure 2. The upstream polarizer was
set to pass vertical, and the attenuator was calibrated so that the photodiode remained unsaturated
(upper limit 10V on the oscilloscope). The downstream polarizers were then offset at 5 increments,
with photodiode voltage data taken at each point.
This process was repeated over 135 - to fully cover
two minima and one maxima.

Conductive Interface (Mirror)

The experimental schematic for the mirror phase

shift determination is shown in Figure 2. Linearly
polarized light incident on a mirror (between 3 and 7
in the beam path, Figure 2) was put through downstream polarizers set iteratively to vertical, horizontal, 45 , and -45 polarizations - then each intensity
was analyzed with the photodiode to satisfy Equation 8.

FIG. 3: Birefringence Experiment: 1) Linear

Polarizer, 2) Attenuator, 3) Chopper, 4) Focusing
Lens, 5) Light Shield, 6) Silicon Photodiode, 7)
Optical Grade Sapphire (All solid blocks are
mirrors)

ANALYSIS
BK7 Glass Index of Refraction & Phase Change

Manipulating Equation 3 to nair tan B = nBK7 ,

where nair = 1.0002765 at HeNe wavelength, we experimentally determined the index of refraction for
BK7 to be 1.513 0.0021. This is within 1 of the
accepted reference value for BK7 of 1.515. The HeNe
beam polarized at 45.5 incident on the BK7 was analyzed downstream with a variable polarizer, finding an intensity minima at 105.5 - demonstrating
a phase change of = 73 . To verify the phase
change, using rp = 0.0948 and rs = 0.3079, derived
from the Fresnel equations (Eqs. 1 and 2) with
the experimentally determined index of refraction,
r
and the relation = tan rps , we arrive at a phase
change: = 72.89 extremely close to the value
gained by visual inspection of oscilloscope minima.

FIG. 4: Malus Law fit: From the yellow line, it is

apparent that the fits only diverge by a maximum
of about 25mV or 0.25% from the peak function
value
Polarization
Ix
Iy
I+45
I45

Photodiode Linearity using Malus Law

Data taken for the verification of photodiode linearity is plotted and fit to Malus Law (Equation 4)
in Figure 4. The photodiode was assumed to have a
linear response in the output voltage range up to 2V.
Two fits were conducted on the data, one below the
2V line as the assumed linear control, and one above
the 2V line for comparison. The difference between
the two fits multiplied by a factor of 100 appears in
yellow on the figure - from here it is apparent that
the separation between the fits was no larger 25mV
at its maximum deviation. The reduced 2 for a full
fit was 9.64.

Intensity
(1.53 0.002)V
(1.55 0.002)V
(2.95 0.005)V
(0.114 0.0002)V

TABLE I: Intensity in voltage for different

polarization angles with HeNe beam reflected off
mirror

~c axis and the surface normal, , was determined

using the relation:

tan =

nair
sin
n2e ()

(10)

The two values for obtained from = 70.5 and

= 292.5 were 28.09 0.95 and 27.61 0.94 ,
respectively. This gives an average value of =
27.85 0.67 .

Metal Mirror Phase Angle

The intensity data for the four different polarization angles to satisfy Equation 8 is displayed in Table
1.
Using Equation 8, we arrive at a phase separation
between the s and p polarizations: = 24.35
0.68 .

CONCLUSION

Several different aspects of light polarization were

explored in this lab, as well as the strong verification of our silicon photodiode linearity above a 2V
output signal at a maximum fit deviation of 25mV.
All data with available verification was within acceptable error limits: the index of refraction of BK7

Birefringent Sapphire

We found the two global intensity minima to be

at angles 70.5 and 292.5 . The angle between the
4

was experimentally determined to be 1.513 0.0021

with an accepted value of 1.515, the phase shift incurred on BK7 reflection was measured to be 73 by
visual inspection compared with a calculated value
of 72.89 using the Fresnel reflection equations, and
the independently calculated values of from each
intensity minima for the birefringent sapphire were

within 1 of the average value.

[1] Saleh, B.E.A., Teich, M.C.,

Fundamentals of Photonics, 2nd Ed..
John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2007