4.

3 (a) POLARIZATION : DTERMINATION OF POLARIZATION

OF GIVEN LIGHT

1.1. AIM
To understand how to differentiate between lights of different polarizations.

1.2 PRINCIPLE
A. Determining the polarization of a given light
When a linearly polarized light falls on any wave plate, the output polarization
is different, depending on the nature of the wave plate used.
If we make this light incident on a Polaroid and plot the graph for angle of
polarizer vs. the intensity of transmitted light, we get unique plots for different
polarizations. We use this plots to differentiate between different polarizations
of light.

1.3.EQUIPMENTS REQUIRED
Sl. No. Required item Utility
1 Laser Source Light Source
2 Polarizers To polarize light
3 Wave plates To change the polarization of light
4 Photodetector To measure the intensity of light

Figure 1: (a) Experimental Set-up (b) Free body diagram

1.4. PROCEDURE
Two physical quantities need to be measured in this experiment Intensity of light, angle of
polarizer.
Make the following table

S.No Physical quantity Measured with Least count

1 Intensity Photodetector 1 A
2 Angle of polarizer Polarizer 10

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A. Polarization using polaroid:-
1. Set up the apparatus as shown in the figure.

2. Pass the given (Polarized) light through a polarizer.

3. Measure the intensity of transmitted light using a photodetector. Rotate the polarizer
so that minimum intensity is transmitted. This position corresponds to your = 0o
4. Measure the intensity of light transmitted through the polaroid vs. the angle of the
polaroid and tabulate the result.
5. Plot the graph for angle of polarizer, vs. the intensity of the transmitted light and
compare the result with the figures given. Determine the polarization of light.

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1.5. TABLES FOR
RECORDING Table 1: Angle of plorizer vs intensity of transmitted light THE
DATA 1

Sl. Angle of polarizer, Intensity of

No. (o) transmitted
light,
(mA/A)

Plot the following Graphs

1. Angle of polarizer vs Intensity of transmitted light.

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1.6 STUDY QUESTIONS
1. How to determine the direction of polarization of linearly polarized light?
2. How to determine the fast axis of the wave plates?

1.7 FURTHER SCOPE OF EXPERIMENTS

1. Try converting the resultant light back to its original state and verify the result.

1.8 PRECAUTIONS
1. All of the optical apparatus should lie in a straight line.
2. Make sure that all the polarizers and waveplates used are clean.

1.9 SOURCES OF ERROR

1. Extinction ratio of polarizer used might not be high enough.
2. The laser source may not give a constant output over time

1.10 THEORY
1. When passing a polarized light through a polarizer, the output intensity is a time
average of the component of electric field of the beam along the direction of the Polaroid.
Thus for different polarization,, we will have different plots for angle of polaroid vs.
intensity.
a) Linearly polarized light:

If the beam is initially polarized in one direction we would initially get zero
intensity when the axis of Polaroid is perpendicular to the electric field vector.
As the angle increases, so does the intensity until we get a maximum when
both the electric field vector as well as the Polaroid axis are parallel. After that
the intensity decreases to zero. This happens in a 180o rotation. Therefore the
typical plot for angle of polarizer vs. the intensity is given in Figure 2

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Figure 2: Plot for angle of Polaroid vs. the Intensity of light for Linearly Polarized Light.

b) Elliptically polarized light

In this case, the electric field traces out an ellipse. Therefore, we will
have minimum, non-zero polarization when the axis of polarizer is
parallel to the minor axis of the ellipse. Intensity increases as we
increase the angle (as we move closer to the major axis), until we
reach a maximum intensity, when the axis is along the major axis. The
intensity then decreases after increasing the angle. This happens in a
rotation of 90o. The difference between the plots of linear and
elliptical polarizations will be that the minimum intensity in elliptical
polarization will be nonzero, whereas in linear polarization is zero.
The corresponding plot for intensity of transmitted light vs. angle of
Polaroid is given in Figure 3.

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 Figure 3: Plot for angle of Polaroid vs. the Intensity of light for Elliptically Polarized Light.

c) Circularly polarized light:

This is a special case of elliptically polarized light, when the major
and minor axis has the same length. Due to the symmetry, we will get
a constant transmission intensity regardless of the angle of the
polarizer. The plot is a horizontal line.

d) Unpolarized light:
Since the light is unpolarized, we will get a constant intensity of half
the intensity of the incident beam. We can differentiate between
circular polarized light and unpolarized light by passing it through a
Quarter wave plate. The plot is a horizontal line.

Figure 4: Figure showing the polarization of light using a polaroid and converting to circular polarization using
a Quarter wave plate

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 FURTHER READING AND RESOURCES

Text books
Eugene Hecht, Optics

Internet
www.physicsclassroom.com

Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH58VmUbOKM