Polarization

Ivan Bazarov
Cornell Physics Department / CLASSE

Outline
• Types of polarization
• Jones’ matrices
• Birefringence
• Polarizing optical components
• Polarization in scattering

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 Polarization ellipse

For light traveling along z direction: k ⇥ E = vB

with a complex amplitude:

The electric field traces out an ellipse:

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 Polarization ellipse

Polarization types:
• linearly polarized light
• circularly polarized light
• unpolarized light (non-laser)

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 Linear & circular polarizations

linearly polarized light

circularly polarized light

Right
CCW

Left

CW

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 Unpolarized light?

Unpolarized light means random (time-changing) polarization direction, e.g.

excited atoms in a solid (a light bulb) emit randomly polarized light packets.

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 Jones vector

We can represent any monochromatic wave polarization as a Jones’ vector:

For normalized intensity :

E.g. orthogonal polarizations whenever J01 · J2 = 0

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 Exercises

Ex1: Check that HLP and VLP are orthogonal as well as RCP and LCP.

Q: What does it mean?

A: can use either as a basis to represent arbitrary polarization!

Ex2: How to obtain the light intensity from its Jones vector (if in vacuum)?

Ax
J0 · J = [A⇤x A⇤y ] = |Ax |2 + |Ay |2
Ay

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 Jones matrix (don’t work with unpolarized light!)

Normal modes:
TJ = µJ

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 Combining polarization devices & tilt

Simply multiply the matrices in the reverse order:

T1 T2 T3

T = T3 T2 T1

If polarization device is rotated, use:

Proof:
using , we get

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 Linear polarizer

Linear polarizer in x-direction

A polarizer rotated by angle q

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 Polarization retarders or wave plates

These devices do not affect one polarization component (fast axis) but add a
retarding phase to the other component (slow axis).

If fast axis is along x-direction, then

y-component gets ‘retarded’

slow axis
Important cases of wave retarders:
• Quarter-wave retarder: G = 2p/4 = p/2
• Half-wave retarder: G = 2p/2 = p

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 Quarter-wave plate & half-wave plate

Quarter-Wave Retarder Half-Wave Retarder

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 Exercises

What is the Jones matrix of a mirror?

What happens to HLP light upon reflection?

What happens to VLP light upon reflection?

What happens to RCP light upon reflection?

What happens to LCP light upon reflection?

Q: How is it different from the half-wave plate retarder?

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 Jones calculus example

Poor man’s optical isolator:

image taken from Newport.com

Jones matrix: T = Tpol,x ( 45 )T⇡/2 Tmirror T⇡/2 Tpol,x (45 )

     
11 11 11 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0
T
T== =
44 11 11 0 j 0 1 0 j 1 1 0 0

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 Birefringence

Spring model of a molecule: Calcite

different indexes of refraction depending on

the polarization direction → birefringence

When ‘spring constants’ are not the same, the material is said to be optically
anisotropic (otherwise, it is said to be isotropic).

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 Uniaxial crystals

If the ‘spring constants’ k1 = k2 ≠ k3, index of refraction n3 = ne in k3 polarization

direction (optical axis) is different (extraordinary wave) from n1 = n2 = no in k1,
k2 directions (ordinary waves). Such materials are known as uniaxial crystals.

calcite unit cell

image taken from microscopyu.com image taken from metafysica.nl

If k1 ≠ k2 ≠ k3, the crystal as said to be biaxial.

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 Retarders
no

ne
Phase retardation for x,y-
polarizations
2⇡
= d(n0 ne )
0

Material no ne
Tourmaline 1.669 1.638
Calcite 1.6584 1.4864
d Quartz 1.5443 1. 5534
Sodium Nitrate 1.5854 1. 3369
image taken from philem.me.uk Ice 1.309 1.313
Rutile (TiO2) 2.616 2.903

Example: quarter-wave plate of calcite must have thickness

dp/2 = 600 nm/4/(no – ne) = 0.87 µm, and dp/2 = 38 µm for ice.

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 Polarizing beam splitters

Simplest kind – use Brewster’s angle: 1

✓B = tan (n2 /n1 )
MacNeille polarizing beamsplitter cube

✓B

Other types rely on splitting beam into ordinary and extraordinary waves:

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 Rayleigh scattering

Recall that a driven electric dipole emits radiation (fully polarized!)

Electric field of light drives little dipoles (bound electrons) → light is re-radiated
or scattered (Rayleigh scattering).

Its most salient feature is that Iscat. ∝ 1/l4 (i.e. the blue light gets scattered
much more than red, the reason behind blue skies)

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 Rayleigh scattering polarization

Scattered light is linearly polarized when viewed at 90º from the scatterers;
& partially polarized at other angles.

linearly
unpolarized light
polarized

molecule

partially
linearly
polarized
polarized

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 Rayleigh scattering from laser

Vertical Laser Horizontal Laser

Polarization Polarization

Other scattering regimes:

• Rayleigh scattering is when scatterer size ≪ wavelength
• When scattering particles ~ wavelength, it’s called Mie scattering, which is a
more general theory. Tyndall effect refers to being able to see the laser path
in a colloidal solution.

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 Links/References

Most figures taken from Saleh & Teich

Some figures from Wikipedia

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-
science/6-007-electromagnetic-energy-from-motors-to-lasers-spring-
2011/lecture-notes/MIT6_007S11_lec25.pdf

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