MIT Art Design and Technology University

MIT School of Computing, Pune

Department of Applied Sciences and Humanities
First Year Engineering
23BTPH005-Engineering Physics

Class – F.Y. (SEM-I), <>

Unit - III Wave optics and Applications

AY 2024-2025 SEM-I
 Unit III - Syllabus
Intereference

Interference in thin films of uniform thickness

formation of Newton’s rings and its application (i) for the
determination of wavelength of incident light or radius of
curvature of a given plano-convex lens

Anti-reflection coating.
Diffraction

Fraunhofer diffraction at Single slit

Plane diffraction grating, Conditions for maxima and minima.
Polarization

Definition, Types of polarization

Production of plane polarized light

Application: LCD
Department of Applied Sciences and Humanities, First Year Engineering
 Polarization

Interference and diffraction phenomena prove that light is an
electromagnatic wave

These phenomena do not provide any information about
nature of wave i.e. whether the waves are transverse or
longitudinal.

In 1816 Arago and Fresnel showed that light waves vibrating
in mutually perpendicular plane do not interfere

In 1817 Thomas Young postulated that light waves are the
transverse waves and explain the absence of interference
between light waves light polarized in mutually perpendicular
planes

Light is an elecromagnatic wave. It consist of oscillating
electric and magnetic field.

In electromagnetic wave, the electric field and magnetic field
are perpendicular to each other and they are perpendicular to
the direction of propagation in vacuum

The direction of electric field is refered as polarization of the
wave

Light coming from comman light sources such as sun, bulb,
candle is unpolarized. In such light the direction of electric
field is not fixed.

Polarized light is produced from unpolarized light using some
optical elments.

Applications: The polarization techniques are used in,
goggles, calculator, LCD Television, Production of
stereoscopic (3D) movies
 Natural light


Any light source consists of a very large number of atomic
emmiters.

Each atom emits at a specific instant a wave packet that lasts
for about 10-8 sec.

Light emiited by such a source is a mixture of wave packets
emitted by different atoms at different instances.

Individual wave packet will be polarized. But different wave
packets have different polarizations.

There is no continuity of plane of polarization and plane of
polarazation varies from wave packet to wave packet in a
completely random manner
 Unpolarized Light Polarized Light

Plane of vibration is 
Electric vector vibrating in a
distributed in all direction single plane normal to ray
about the ray direction direction

Symmetrical about the ray 
Asymmetrical about the ray
direction direction

Produced by conventional 
Obtained from unpolarized
light sources light with the help of
polarizers

May be ragarded as
resultant of two incoherent 
Resultant of two mutually
waves of equal intensity but perpendicular coherent
polarized in mutualy waves having zero phase
perpendicular plane difference
 Plane polarized light


The electric field vector remains in a plane through out the
propagation

Linearly polarized light which is polarized at any arbitary
angle may be regarded as a combination of horizontally and
vertically polarized light with apropriate amplitude and when
they are oscillating with a phase difference of 0 0 or 1800

Two component waves are coherent
 Circularly polarized light


A light wave is said to be circularly polarized if the
magnitude of electric vector E stays constant but it rotates at a
constant rate about the direction of propagation and sweeps a
circular helix in space

If the rotation of the tip of electric field is clockwise as seen
by an observer locking towartds the source, the wave is said
to be right circularly polarised light

If the rotation of the tip of electric field is anticlockwise as
seen by an observer locking towartds the source, the wave is
said to be left circularly polarised light


An circularly polarized light may be regarded as the resultant
wave produced due to superposition of two coherent linearly
polarized waves of equal amplitude, oscillating in mutually
perpendicular plane
 Elliptically polarized light


A light wave is said to be elipticaly polarized if the magnitude
of electric vector E changes with time and vector E rotates
about the direction of propagation and sweeps a flatten helix
in space

If we are looking at the light wave advancing towards us, we
would onserve that the tip of electric field vector traces an
elipse in space hence it is called ellipticaly polarized light

If the rotation of the tip of electric field is clockwise as seen
by an observer looking towards the source, the wave is said to
be right elliptically polarised light

If the rotation of the tip of electric field is anticlockwise as
seen by an observer looking towards the source, the wave is
said to be left elliptically polarised light

An ellipticaly polarised light wave may be regarded as the
resultant wave produced due to superposition of two coherent
linealry polarized waves differing amplitude oscillating in
mutually perpendicular plane
 Production of plane polarized light


Plane polarized light can be produced from unpolarized light
by five optical phenomena

Reflection
Refraction
Scattering
Selective absorption
Double refraction
 Polarization by reflection from dielectric surface


In 1808 E. L. Malus discovered that when natural light is
incident on a smooth surface of dielectric materials such as
asphalt roadways, water at a certain angle the reflected light is
plane polarized

The extent of polarizarion depends on the angle of incidence
and the properties of the matereial of the surface

When light is incident on a boundary between two dielectric
materials, a part of light is reflected and a part is transmitted
 θB


Unpolarised light is incident on a dielectric material

In unpolarised light the electric field vector can be anywhere
in a plane perpendicular to the direction of motion

The electric field in unpolarised light can be resolved in two
components, one perpendicular to the plane of incidence and
one parallel to the plane of incidence

The component perpendicular to the plane of incidence is
called s-component

The component parallel to the plane of incidence is called p-
component

In case of completely unpolarised light the two component
are of equal magnitude

In case of reflection at surface of a dielecric the magnitude of
s and p components in the reflected light depends on the
angle of incidence
 At a particular angle of incidence i = θ , the reflection
B
coefficient of p-component vanishes. It contains only s-
component and is totaly polarized
 The angle θ is called the polarizing angle or Brwester angle
B

David Brewster performed series of experiment on
polarization of light and proved that the tangent of the angle
at which 100% polarization is obtained by reflection is
numerically equal to the refractive index of the medium.
μ = tanθB

This is known as Brewster's law
 Applications of Brewster's law

Brwester's law can be used to determine the refractive index
of opaque materials

It helps us to calculate the polarizing angle necessary for total
polarization of reflected light from the refractive index of the
surface

It is used in lasers to get polarised light

Brwester law is used for transmitting light beam into or out of
the optical fibre without reflection losses
Exp. Sunlight is reflected from a calm lake. The reflected light is 100%
polarized at a certain instant. What is the angle between the sun and the
horizon at that instant? The refractive index of water is 1.33.
Sun Observer

θB

Water

Soln. Here reflected light is 100% polarised. Therefore the angle of incidence
of sun rays is Brewster angle θB. According to Brewster's law

tan θB = μ = 1.33

θB = tan-1(1.33) = 53.060

The angle made by Sun with the horizon is

α = 90-θ = 90- 53.06 = 36.940
 Polarization by refraction - Pile of plates


Unpolarised light incident at Brwester angle on a smooth
glasss surface, the reflected light is totaly polarised, while the
refracted light is partially polarised

If a stack of glass plates is used reflection from succesive
surfaces occurs and hence s-component decreses in the
transmitted (refracted) ray.

Ultimately the transmitted ray consists of p-component alone

A stack of about 15 glass plates is required to get completely
polarised light in the refracted beam

The glass plates are supported in a tube of suitable size as
shown in the figure.

Such an arrangement is called pile of plates

Unpolarised light enters tube and is incident on the plates at
Brewster' angle and the transmitted light will be polarised to
the plane of incidence
 Polarization by selective absorption


Many crystaline material absorb more light in one incident
plane than other.

Light propagating in such crystal becomes more and more
polarised

This difference in the absorption for light rays is known as
selective absorption or dichroism

This phenomenan was discovered by Biot in 1815

When natural light passes through a crystal such a tourmiline,
it is split in to two components which are polarised in
mutually perpendicular plane

The crystal absorbs light polarised parallel to a particular
plane but transmit freely the light polarized in a direction
perpendicular to that plane

If the crystal is of proper thickness, one of the components is
totaly absorbed and the other component emerging from the
crystal is completely polarised
 Polarization by double refraction


When a beam of unpolarised light is incident on the surface
of an anisotropic crystal such as calcite or quartz, the light
beam will split into two rays that travel in different directions.
This phenomenon is called birefrenges or double refraction

The two rays are known as ordinary ray (o-ray) and extra
ordinary ray (e-ray) which are linearly polarised in mutually
perrpendicular direction

A single linearly polarised ray is obtained by eliminating one
of the ray
 Polarizer and Analyzer


A polarizer is an optical element which utilizes the phenomenon
of selective absorption or double refraction and transform
unpolarised light in to polarised light

Plane polarized light is obtained by removing one of the
components in the unpolarized light

A polarizer has a transmission axis. The component of electric
field parallel to the transmission axis passes through the
polarizer. The component perpendicular to the transmision axis is
blocked
 When unpolarised light with intensity I 0 is incident on a
polarizer, the intesity of the light coming out of polarizer is
I0/2

Analyzer is an optical
element, which is used to
identify the plane of
vibration of the plane
polarised light


Its construction is same as
that of the polarizer
 Malus' law


In 1809 Malus found that the intensity of polarised light
transmitted through a polarizer is proportional to the square
of cosine of the angle betweeen the plane of polarization of
light and transmission axis of the polarizer
 Applications of polarization techniques & polarized light
Sunglasses


Light reflected from non metalic surfaces such as water, snow clad
mountain, ashpalt roads is partially polarized

At angle near to Brewster's angle the reflected light contains a large
concentration of vibration in a plane parallel to the reflecting surface.

Such a highly polarised light causes glares and create problems in
activities such as driving

To reduce this glare sunglasses use the phenomenon of polarization.

The polarised sunglasses have polarising filter over their
lenses which are oriented vartically.

The electric field vector oriented perpendicular to the
polarising filter will be blocked. Hence glares will be
elimineted
 Stereoscopic movies


The phenomenon of polarization is used in making and
viewing of stereoscopic (3D) movies

In real life we are able to able to see and estimate depth
because our left and right eyes see any object or scene with
slightly different angle and position. The images obtained by
our left and right eyes are combined in our brain to give us
the perspective of depth or 3rd dimension

The same concept is used for stereoscopic (3D) movies

In 3D movies , every scene is shot with two cameras from
slightly different locations.
Anaglyph

The movies shot by these two cameras are projected
siultaneously on the same screen by two different projectors
placed at two sides of the audience.

These two projectors have polarizing filter attached to them.
The light coming out of these projectors are polarized
mutually perpendicular to each other. One of them can be
horizontaly polarized while other may be vertically polarized.

The audience wears glasses which have polaroid filters. The
polaroid filter for the two eyes are aligned perpendicular to
each other

Thus left eye sees the movie which is projected by projector
in right side. The right eye sees the movie which is projected
by projector in left side. The two images are combined in the
brain and gives us the perception on depth.
 Liquid crystal display (LCD)

https://tailorpixels.com/how-does-the-lcd-work/

LCDs are used in wrist watches, computer screen, television

LCD consists of rod like liquid crystalline molecule which is
a double refracting material. This molecules are supported
between two thin glass plates having transparent conducting
coatings on inter surface

The conducting coating is etched in the form of a digit of
characters or shown in figure

The assembaly of glass plate with liquid crystal materials in
sandwitched between two crossed polarizer sheet

During the fabrication of lcds, liquid crystal molecules are alight in
such a way that their long axis undergo a rotation of 900

It is called twisted molecular arrangement

When narural light is incident on the LCD assembly, the front
polarizer converts it into linearly polarized light with electric field
in vertical direction

As the linearly polarized light propadates through the LCD,
the electric field vector is rotated through 90 0 by the twisted
liquid crystal molecule

Therefore it passes through rear polarizer whose transmission
axis is perpendicular to the transmission axis of the polarizer
at the front

A reflecting coating at the back of the rear polarizer reflects
the light back which emerges out of the front polarizer.
Therefore the display appears uniformaly illuminated

When a voltage is applied to the device, the liquid crystal
molecules between the electrods untwist and align along the
field direction.

As a result the electric field vector do not undergo the
rotation as it passes through the region containing the liquid
crystal molecule.

Therefore the light is blocked by the rear polarizer therefore
that part of the display appears dark. This can be used to
display numbers or characters.
Photoelasticity application
1. Unpolarised light falls on two polarizing sheets placed one on the
top of other. What must be the angle between the characteristics
directions(transmission axis) of sheets if intensity of the transmitted
light is one third intensity of the incident beam?
Solution

I0 I0/2 I0 / 3

We know that when unpolarized light passes through a polarizer
the intensity of light becomes half.
If = Ii cos2 θ
I0/3 = I0/2 cos2 θ
cos2 θ = 2/3
θ = cos-1((2/3)1/2)
θ = 35.260
Questions
1. What is plane polarized light? Describe any one methods of production of plane polarized
light.
2. What is circularly polarized light?
3. What is elliptically polarized light?
4. Describe the process of production of plane polarized light by reflection.
5. Describe the process of production of plane polarized light by refraction.
6. State the Brewster’s law. How can this law be used to produce plane polarized light?
7. State and explain Malus’ law.
8. Explain the polarization by double refraction.
9. Explain the LCD and its working.
10. Describe 2 applications of polarized light phenomenon in day-to-day technology.