Lab Experiments 89 KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit

Experiment-331

BREWSTERS ANGLE
Dr Jeethendra Kumar P K
KamalJeeth Instrumentation & Service Unit, Tata Nagar, Bengaluru-560 092. INDIA.

Email: labexperiments@rediffmail.com
Abstract

Using a diode laser and three different transparent glass materials, Brewsters angles and refractive indices of the glasses are determined and compared with their corresponding theoretical values.

Introduction
When light is incident on a transparent solid material, part of it gets reflected and another part gets refracted, as shown in Figure-1(a-c). If light strikes the interface such that there is 90o angle between the reflected and refracted rays, as shown in Figure 1(c), the reflected light will be linearly polarized. The direction of polarization (the angle at which the electric field vectors point) is parallel to the plane of the interface [1]. The angle of incidence that produces an angle of 90o between the reflected and refracted rays is called the Brewsters angle, B.
medium-1(air) refractive index n1 Incident ray Reflected ray Total angle <90 medium-2 (glass) refractive index n2 Refracted ray medium-2 (glass) refractive index n2 Total angle >90 medium-2 (glass) refractive index n2 Total angle =90 Incident ray Reflected ray medium-1(air) refractive index n1 Incident ray Reflected ray medium-1(air) refractive index n1

Refracted ray Refracted ray

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure-1: Reflection and refraction of light at the interface of two transparent media of different refractive indices In Figure-1(a) the sum of the angles (1+2) <90 and in Figure-1(b) the sum of the angles (1+2)>90. This was first discovered by Sir David Brewster in 1815. The reflected ray is found to be plane polarized as shown in Figure-2. The reason for this observation is that when the incident light is un-polarized, it passes through the interface and is absorbed by the atoms in the second medium. Electrons in these atoms oscillate back and forth in the direction of the electric field vectors of the refracted ray, perpendicular to the direction in which the refracted light travels. This light is subsequently re-emitted by the atoms to form both the reflected and refracted rays. The electric field vectors in the light coincide with the direction in which the electrons oscillate and are perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave. When light is incident at the Vol-11, No-2, June-2011

Lab Experiments 90 KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit Brewsters angle, the reflected wave does not have electric field vectors parallel to the refracted ray, as the electrons do not oscillate along that direction. The reflected wave also does not have electric field vectors parallel to the reflected ray because it is in the direction of propagation of the wave. Thus the only direction possible for the reflected ray is perpendicular to the plane of the picture (Figure-1), so it is linearly polarized. The refracted ray is partially polarized because it has more light with electric field vectors in the plane of the picture than perpendicular to it as shown in Figure-2. If the angle of incidence is different from B (the Brewsters angle), the reflected ray is also partly polarized.

Brewsters angle
Figure-1 shows a pictorial representation of reflection and refraction of light incident on a transparent medium. According to the Snells law of refraction n1 Sin i = n2 Sin r 1

where n1 is refractive index of the first medium (air), which is equal to unity, and n2 = refractive index of the second medium (glass): n2 = n (n refractive index of glass with respect) i = angle of incidence, and r = angle of refraction Equation-1, therefore, becomes Sin i = n Sin r 2

When the angle between the reflected ray and refracted ray equals 90, the angle of incidence is called the Brewsters angle. From Figure-1(c) and using basic geometry i+ r +90 = 180 , or i +r = 90 , or r = 90-i Substituting for r in Equation-2 Sin i = n Sin (90-i) , or 5

3 4

Sin i = n Cos i, which gives Tan i= n 6

The angle of incidence given by Equation-6 is called the Brewsters angle and is denoted by B Tan B = n, or B = Tan-1n 7

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Lab Experiments 91 KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit Determination of Brewsters angle using laser is much simpler compared to that obtained by using a spectrometer and white light. The component of light coming from the laser parallel to the material will be absorbed by the material. The amount of absorption depends on the angle of incidence and increases with increasing angle of incidence. When the angle of incidence equals the Brewsters angle the entire incident light is absorbed by the material and no light will be reflected. Hence the intensity of reflected light becomes zero at the Brewsters angle. This can be easily detected with naked eye and Brewsters angle can be read from the graduated turn table holding the material. During the process the turn table is slowly rotated and variation in the intensity of the spot reflected from the surface of the glass is observed. Knowing the Brewsters angle, the refractive index of the material can be determined using Equation-7.

Identification of s and p components of the electric vector

An electromagnetic light wave is represented by its electric and magnetic vectors. In polarization only the electric vector comes into play. Hence considering only the electric vector, which has a parallel component, EX (also known ass component) and the perpendicular component, Ey (also known as p component or the perpendicular component). When determining the Brewsters angle, the knowledge of s and p components of electric vector is essential because the p component of the electric vector does not have any loss at the Brewsters angle [2].

Figure-2: The plane polarized reflected ray and partially polarized refracted ray
(Picture courtesy: scitec.uk.com)

The diode laser spot is not exactly circular or round compared to He-Ne laser spot, as shown in Figure-3. It is elliptical with two foci due to its structure [3], whereas a He-Ne laser has more perfect circular spot compared to that obtained from a laser diode. The elliptical shape of the laser spot provides clue to the s and p components of the electric vector. The p component has zero loss at Brewsters angle which can be determined by placing the laser spot vertically or horizontally [2]. It was found that by placing the laser spot along its longer side in the direction normal to the plane of the table, there is a loss of intensity at the Brewsters angle (being 56 for the glass slab) which indicates s component. By placing the laser with its spot parallel to the plane of the table indicates p component, as there is no loss of intensity along this direction. Diode lasers of KamalJeeth make are positioned along the s component which is normal to the plane of table, as shown in Figure-3. The s component of the electric vector is along the longer side ( semi- major axis) of the laser beam and p component is along the shorter Vol-11, No-2, June-2011

Lab Experiments 92 KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit length (semi- minor axis) of the laser spot. Figure-3 shows the elliptical laser spot along with the associated s and p components of the electric vector.

Figure-3: The longer side (semi-major axis) of the laser spot, indicating thes vector and the shorter side (semi-minor axis) indicating the direction of the p vector

Apparatus used
Semiconductor diode laser of KamalJeeth make, model LAS301; turn table graduated in degrees with a resolution of 0.5o, A prism table which can be rotated around a fixed graduated scale is fixed about 3inch from the laser. The pointer attached to the prism table reads its angle of rotation in degrees. Three samples of transparent material. Figure-4 shows the complete experimental set-up.

Figure-4: Experimental set-up for determination of the Brewsters angle

Experimental procedure
1. Three transparent slabs of different glasses are identified and their refractive indices are noted.

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Lab Experiments 93 KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit 2. The prism table pointer is rotated to read 180 on the circular scale. The laser is switched on and the crown glass slab is mounted on the prism table perpendicular to the laser beam. 3. A white screen is placed on the right hand side parallel to the of the laser as shown in Figure-4. 4. The prism table is rotated in anti-clock wise direction and the reflected ray from the front surface and refracted-reflected ray from back surface of the glass slab are observed on the white screen as shown Figure-5. The more instanced spot is reflected ray the other one is the reflected-refracted ray from the back surface of the glass slab.

Figure-5: Reflected ray from the front surface and refracted-reflected ray from the back surface of the glass slab. Note the two laser dots on the glass slab. 5. As the prism table containing the glass slab is rotated further, variation in the intensity of the reflected ray is noticed. The intensity decreases to a minimum and further rotation in the same direction increases the intensity again. Hence there is position where reflected beam attains its minimum intensity. The angle of minimum intensity is noted. Angle of minimum intensity = 236.5 Brewsters angle = 236.5-180=56.5 Refractive index of the material is calculated by using the Equation-7 Tan B = n = Tan 56.5 =1.51 We have used crown glass which has refractive index of 1.517. 6. The experiment is repeated for the other two other glass slabs. The Brewsters angles obtained are tabulated in Table-1. Figure-6 shows the position of the glass slab with minimum intensity and Figure-7 shows the two reflected and refracted-reflected rays at 10 and at 56.5

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Lab Experiments 94 KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit

Figure-6: Brewster angle (53) for soda glass, read on the circular scale

The reflected ray (more intenser) and refracted-reflected ray (less intenser) from the back surface

Only the ray refracted-reflected from the back surface is seen in the picture. The reflected ray from the front surface has minimum intensity

Figure-7: The reflected ray getting faint compared to refracted-reflected ray from the back surface; (b) only the refracted-reflected ray seen in the picture. The reflected ray attains its minimum intensity or it is completely absorbed by the glass at Brewsters angle Table-1 Refractive index Brewsters angle Experimental Theoretical 1.517 56.5 56.6 1.470 52.5 55.8 1.490 57.0 56.1 Brewsters angle for different slabs

Slab Crown glass Soda glass Acrylic plastic

Results
The values of the Brewsters angle determined for three different transparent materials are tabulated in Table-1. The refractive indices of the materials calculated from the Brewsters angles are in quite good agreement with their respective theoretical values.

Discussion
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Lab Experiments 95 KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit The method is straight forward and simple for determining refractive index and Brewsters angle of a transparent material. For the method to be applicable, the laser should have s vector of its electric field parallel to the semi-major axis of the laser spot.

References
[1] [2] [3] Brewsters angle; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster%27s_angle http://books.google.co.in/books? Dr Jeethendra Kumar P K, The transistor laser, Lab Experiments, Vol-6, No-1, March 2006, Page 83.

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