Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Polarizers which maintain the same axes of polarization with varying angles of incidence [clarification needed] are often called [citation needed] Cartesian polarizers, since the polarization vectors can be described with simple Cartesian coordinates (for example, horizontal vs. vertical) independent from the orientation of the polarizer surface.
Malus is probably best remembered for Malus's law, giving the resultant intensity, when a polariser is placed in the path of an incident beam. A follower of Laplace, both his statement of the Malus's law and his earlier works on polarisation and birefringence were formulated using the corpuscular theory of light. [1]
Polarizing sheets are used in liquid-crystal displays, optical microscopes and sunglasses.Since Polaroid sheet is dichroic, it will absorb impinging light of one plane of polarization, so sunglasses will reduce the partially polarized light reflected from level surfaces such as windows and sheets of water, for example.
Fresnel's "plane of polarization", traditionally used in optics, is the plane containing the magnetic vectors (B & H) and the wave-normal. Malus's original "plane of polarization" was the plane containing the magnetic vectors and the ray. (In an isotropic medium, θ = 0 and Malus's plane merges with Fresnel's.)
θ B = Reflective polarization angle, Brewster's angle = / intensity from polarized light, Malus's law: I 0 = Initial intensity, I = Transmitted intensity, θ ...
The fact that light could be polarized was for the first time qualitatively explained by Newton using the particle theory. Étienne-Louis Malus in 1810 created a mathematical particle theory of polarization. Jean-Baptiste Biot in 1812 showed that this theory explained all known phenomena of light polarization. At that time the polarization was ...
An illustration of the polarization of light that is incident on an interface at Brewster's angle. Brewster's angle (also known as the polarization angle) is an angle of incidence at which light with a particular polarization is perfectly transmitted through a transparent dielectric surface, with no reflection.
Michael Faraday holding a piece of glass of the type he used to demonstrate the effect of magnetism on polarization of light, c. 1857.. By 1845, it was known through the work of Augustin-Jean Fresnel, Étienne-Louis Malus, and others that different materials are able to modify the direction of polarization of light when appropriately oriented, [4] making polarized light a very powerful tool to ...