Department of Physics Course Code: PHIR11

National Institute of technology Course title: Physics-I

Kurukshetra  (practical)

EXPERIMENT - 3
OBJECT:

To study Polarization of light and verification of Malus’s law.

FEATURES:

The complete experimental set-up consists of the following:

1. Optical bench: Two 100 cm long steel rods ½” diameter forming a bench with end
supports having leveling screws. One of the two steel rods is graduated in cm and
mm. it has five riders, two with transverse motion. Complete with four lens holders.
2. Halogen lamp with house.
3. Double convex lens (50mm dia & F.L. 10cm )
4. Polarizer and analyzer fitted at the ends of a metallic tube. Both are capable of
rotation about a common axis. The rotation can be read on a graduated circular scale
3600 provided with each of them.
5. Photo voltaic cell.
6. Micro ammeter having 50µA range.

THEORY AND FORMULA USED

According to Malus’s law, when a completely plane polarized light is incident on analyzer, the
intensity of polarized light transmitted through the analyzer varies as the square of cosine of the
angle between the plane of transmission of the analyzer and the plane of the polarizer.

Where I (ø)= I0 cos2 ø

I (ø) = Intensity of the emergent light at a particular angle, ø,

I0 = Intensity of plane polarized light incident on the analyzer,

Ø= angle between planes of transmission of polarizer and analyzer.

From this law, when ø =00, I=I0 maximum intensity

When ø= 900 I=0 minimum intensity

To verify this law, the light from the analyzer is made to enter in a photo voltaic cell. The current
output of photo voltaic cell is connected to micrometer. The deflection of micro ammeter θ is
directly proportional to the intensity of light falling on photo voltaic cell. According to cosine
law θ α cos2ø. Hence if a graph is plotted between  and cos2ø, it should be a straight line,
thus verifying cosine law.
EXPERIMENTAL SET UP

The experimental arrangement is shown in fig. 1, P is a polarizer and A is an analyzer. These two
are fitted at the ends of a metallic tube. Both are capable of rotation about a common axis. The
rotation can be read on a circular scale provided with each of them. Light from the source S
rendered parallel with the help of convex lens L, is allowed to fall on polarizer P. The light after
passing through P becomes polarized. The polarized light then passes though analyzer A. it is
then allowed to fall on photo voltaic cell connected with micro ammeter. The experiment is
performed in a dark room to avoid any external light to enter inside the photo voltaic cell.

Fig. 1: Experimental Arrangement

PROCEDURE

1. The experimental arrangement is made according to fig. 1 in this arrangement, the source
S, convex lens polarizer A and the window of photo voltaic cell should be at the same
height.
2. Now switched on halogen lamp. For any orientation of the polarizer P, the analyzer A is
rotated till there is a maximum deflection in the micro ammeter. The position of
analyzer is noted on the circular scale. The corresponding micro ammeter deflection is
also recorded. This position of analyzer corresponds to ø=0.
3. The analyzer is rotated through a small angle say 10o and the steady micro ammeter
deflection is noted
4. The experiment is repeated by rotating the analyzer through 10o each time and noting the
corresponding micro ammeter deflection till it becomes practically zero
S. Angle through which analyzer Micro ammeter Cos ø Cos2ø / cos2ø
No is rotated, ø deflection, θ ( Steady)
.
1 00
2 100
3 200
4 300
5 400
6 500
7 600
8 700
9 800
10 900

CALCULATIONS

Find the value of Ө/cos2φfrom each observation. It remains practically constant.

Draw a graph between cos2φ on X axis and θ on Y axis. The graph come a straight line as shown
in Fig. (2). The graph verify the cosine square law (Malus’ law).

Fig.2
 SOURCES OF ERROR AND PRECAUTIONS

1. The position of the polarizer (P) should not be disturbed throughout the experiment.
2. Source of light, lens, polarizer and photo voltaic cell should be adjusted to the same
height.
3. After starting experiment, don’t touch the bulb house as it becomes very hot.
4. The voltage applied to the source of light should be constant throughout the experiment.
5. The experiment should be performed in a dark room.

Question for Viva

1. Explain the nature of light?

2. What is the difference between polarized and un-polarized light?
3. Define the term ‘Plane of transmission’, ‘Plane of vibration’ and Plane of polarization’
4. What do you understand by ‘plan polarized’, ‘circularly polarized’ and ‘elliptical
polarized’ light?
5. State and explain Malus’ law?
6. What is Nicol Prism? Explain its construction and working.
7. How the Nicol Prism polarizes and analyzes the light?
8. What are the precautions to be followed during the experiment perform?