ASSIGNMENT II (August 27, 2020 ) ANSWER COPY

Paper PH4107 @ IISER Kolkata

Name : Chitradeep Saha. Roll No.: 20RS018

Q1. Do the derivation of reflectance for p-polarized light. (Assume non-

magnetic media i.e. both the meadia are having unit magnitude of relative
permeability. )

Figure 1: Schematic representation of reflection and transmission of a p - polarized light through an interface seperating
two different media with refractive indices n1 and n2

Clearly for a p - polarized electromagnetic wave, the electric field vector oscillates
parallel (p) to the plane of incidence which is the xz-plane in the figure 1.
From the boundary condition of the continuity of the tangential components of the
electric field vectors and using the law of reflection, θi = θr , we may write the following
:
|Ei | cos θi − |Er | cos θr = |Et | cos θt
⇒ |Ei | cos θi − |Er | cos θi = |Et | cos θt (1)
Similarly from the boundary condition of the continuity of the tangential
components of the magnetic field vectors, we may write the following :

|Bi | + |Br | = |Bt | (2)

1
 Now the relation between the electric field amplitude |E| and magnetic field
amplitude |B| for an electromagnetic wave propagating in a medium with refractive
index n = vcp ( where c is the speed of electromagnetic wave in vacuum and vp is the
phase velocity of the wave in that medium ) is:

|E| |E| n|E|

|B| =
= c = (3)
vp n c
Using the relation (3) in equation (2) and cancelling the constant c on the both
sides, we get:

n1 |Ei | + n1 |Er | = n2 |Et | (4)

|Er |
To calcualte the reflectance r|| = |Ei | we eliminate |Et | from the equations (1) and
(4) as follows:
n2 |Ei | cos θi − n2 |Er | cos θi − n1 |Ei | cos θt − n1 |Er | cos θt = 0
⇒ |Ei | (n2 cos θi − n1 cos θt ) = |Er | (n1 cos θt + n2 cos θi )

|Er | n2 cos θi − n1 cos θt

⇒ r|| = = (5)
|Ei | n2 cos θi + n1 cos θt
Again from Snell’s law we can write :
n2 sin θi
n1 sin θi = n2 sin θt ⇒
= (6)
n1 sin θt
Substituting the result of equation (6) into the equation (5) we get :
sin θi
sin θt cos θi − cos θt sin θi cos θi − sin θt cos θt
r|| = sin θi
= (7)
sin θt cos θi + cos θt sin θi cos θi + sin θt cos θt
After some further trigonometric simplifications as follows, we get :
2 sin θi cos θi − 2 sin θt cos θt sin 2θi − sin 2θt 2 cos (θi + θt ) · sin (θi − θt )
r|| = = =
2 sin θi cos θi + 2 sin θt cos θt sin 2θi + sin 2θt 2 sin (θi + θt ) · cos (θi − θt )
(8)

tan (θi − θt )
r|| = (9)
tan (θi + θt )
Equation (9) is the required expression for the reflectance of p-polarized light wave.

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