Why does an ordinary beam of light on get partially polarized on reflection from a transparent medium?
Why does an ordinary beam of light on get partially polarized on reflection from a transparent medium?
Polarized light is the light in which the direction of electric field and direction of propagation is fixed i.e. the electrons of beam are coherent. Whereas unpolarised light is a superposition of many polarized electromagnetic waves i.e. it is composed of many radiations which are randomly polarized. When such an unpolarized light falls on a surface, part of it gets reflected and rest refracted through the medium.
When light incident on the plane of incidence the component of electric field with polarization parallel to the plane gets refracted through (or absorbed by) it and rest components are partially reflected and partially refracted. Thus the reflected beam is partially polarized. The degree of polarization of reflected beam depends upon the angle of incidence of light. The angle at which the totally polarized reflected beam obtained is called angle of polarization of reflecting surface. This is the angle at which the component with polarization perpendicular to the plane of incidence is reflected and rest absorbed or refracted.
Polarized light is the light in which the direction of electric field and direction of propagation is fixed i.e. the electrons of beam are coherent. Whereas unpolarised light is a superposition of many polarized electromagnetic waves i.e. it is composed of many radiations which are randomly polarized. When such an unpolarized light falls on a surface, part of it gets reflected and rest refracted through the medium.
When light incident on the plane of incidence the component of electric field with polarization parallel to the plane gets refracted through (or absorbed by) it and rest components are partially reflected and partially refracted. Thus the reflected beam is partially polarized. The degree of polarization of reflected beam depends upon the angle of incidence of light. The angle at which the totally polarized reflected beam obtained is called angle of polarization of reflecting surface. This is the angle at which the component with polarization perpendicular to the plane of incidence is reflected and rest absorbed or refracted.
