Polarization Definition and 666 Threads

Whenever there is natural light, you always assume the amplitude is 1/2 of the incident light amplitude after the first polarizer, right? http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n149/camarolt4z28/a1.png http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n149/camarolt4z28/IMG_20111030_161325.jpg

Not actually a homework question, this is a question from a past exam paper (second year EM and optics): Homework Statement Use a Gaussian surface and Amperian loop to derive the electrostatic boundary conditions for a polarization field P at an interface between media 1 and 2 with...

Hi I don't understand the polarization of EM waves. I have same questions about that. 1-) As you know, EM wave is consist of both electric and magnetic field/wave. And there is 90 degree between them. Is that possible to separate these two fields or waves? I mean is that rule: If there is...

what happens to the magnetic field during linear polarization and what happens exactly?

I have seen this explained but would appreciate comments as to whether I understand it correctly. #1. A vertically polarized photon hits a 1/2 wave plate set at 90 degrees will not pass through since cos(90)^2 = 0 #2. 50% of vertically polarized photons that hit a 1/2 wave plate set at...

Homework Statement Hi I am trying to solve problem 2.1 in these notes (it is on the very first page): http://qis.ucalgary.ca/quantech/673/notes/chapter_two.pdf . The problem tells me to show that the Fourier transform of P^{(2)} (t) = \varepsilon _0 \frac{1}{{(2\pi )^2 }}\int_{ - \infty...

I am working with a Laser Diode and I need to observe the intensity of the diode in TE and TM polarizations. the Diode is polarized in the horizontal axis (linear polarization). Is it sufficient to use a half wave plate and rotate it by 90 degrees to observe TE and TM modes? Also, what kind...

I'm working through the start of the Quantum Field Theory book by Peskin and Schroeder. The first section deals with an electron and positron colliding to give a positive and negative muon traveling along a line at an angle theta to the line of the e,p collision.(This is using center of mass...

Hi People usually write the (total) polarization like this P(t) = \epsilon_0(\chi^{(1)}E(t)+chi^{(2)}E(t)^2+\ldots) where χ is the susceptibility. But in my book I see they write it like this P(t) = \varepsilon _0 \frac{1}{{2\pi }}\int\limits_{ - \infty }^\infty {\chi ^{(1)}...

Recently, I read an article about spin and polarization (http://www.mathpages.com/rr/s9-04/9-04.htm) , but I don't understand how the spin operator defined, can anyone give so help? any help would be great!

Let's say I have an equation E=iE0cos(kz-wt)-jE0cos(kz-wt), how do I look at this and know, this is linearly polarized? or what if it changes and the kz is negative? or its a sin function with with (wt-kz-pi/4) in it. I just don't understand what this equation is supposed to be telling me and...

a certain bifringement material has indexes of refraction n1 and n2 for the two perpendicular components of linearly polarized light passing through it. the corresponding wavelengths are λ1=λ0/n1 and λ2=λ0/n2, where λ0 is wavelength in vacuum. If crystal is to function as a quarter-wave plate...

Homework Statement show that minimum thickness of quarter wave plate is d=\lambda0/4(n1-n2 Homework Equations \lambda1=\lambda0/n1 \lambda2=\lambda0/n2 The Attempt at a Solution for quater wave plates wavelengths must differ by 1/4 i can see its simple but i just can't see what...

This one article mention such strange issue as monopole polarization in highly asymmetric crystals. (I did not read entire article). I always thought that polarization could be only dipolar because you need to get charge separation.How monopole thing could exist in a crystal?

Homework Statement The polarization of a light wave is described by two complex parameters. \lambda = cos\Thetae^(i\deltax) \mu = sin\Thetae^(i\deltay) Satisfying |\lambda|^2 + |\mu|^2 = 1 More explicitly, the electric field is Ex(t)=Eocos\Thetacos(\omega/itex]t-\deltax)...

Hello everybody, I have some questions: I'm talking only about traveling waves, not standing waves. If a linear polarized electromagnetic wave has electric field amplitude E_0, i know that its intensity is given by I=(1/2) (E_0^2 ) /c that is the Poynting vector averaged over a...

Homework Statement Using delta+ and delta-, show the polarization of the bonds in nitromethane. Homework Equations None, he just wrote that on the board. Had to look up the molecule on google. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitromethane The Attempt at a Solution I assume the...

Hello everyone. I want to purchase an RFID reader and they asked me if I wanted a left hand or right hand circular polarized reader. I have no clue what this means. Could anyone please help me understand this? I saw some website and all I understood was that the signal travels either clockwise...

Peres, p47 has an thought experiment where: 1 million linearly polarized photons in the x-direction and another million polarized in the y-direction are placed in a box where they travel in the +- z direction with no change in the polarizations. No record is kept of the order in which they...

Homework Statement The polarizatiob charge on the surface of a spherical capacitor is -\sigma_e \cos(\theta), at a point whose radius vector from the centre makes an angle \theta witha given axis Oz. Prove that the field strength at the centre is \frac{\sigma_e}{3 \epsilon_0}, Homework...

can a single photon have different kinds of polarization? say linearly polarized along x-axis circular polarized along y-axis mixed polarized along z-axis actually mixed polarization in a single photon (along a particular axis) cannot happen, right? it can only happen in a beam (which...

Hi, I am trying to understand the reflectivity from metal surfaces, but I'm stuck... I am finding contradicting results and I can't figure out where I'm going wrong. I am reading a paper [1] about IRAS (Infrared reflection absorption spetroscopy) where an IR beam is reflected from a metal with...

I was wondering if anyone had input into this question. Is the measured polarization of a beam of light relative to the frame of the observer? In the texts on Optics that I've read, there does not seem to be any reference to the observer's frame. It is only mentioned that light is...

I'm trying to understand how the polarization of an incident laser, (280.5 nm YAG in this case horizontally polarized) effects Vibrational Raman Scattering. Consider this laser incident on atmosphereic lab air (I'm seeing N2 and O2 stokes lines shifted to about 300nm) with a CCD lense's line of...

E/M waves can be polarized, presumably, by filtering either their electric or magnetic transverse vectors. What about matter waves? Can they be electrically or magnetically polarized? Can they be polarized with respect to spin, parity, or any other parameter? That's a lot of...

Hi. I am stuck. By inverting the spin-1 differential operator I was able to derive (quite easily) the propagator for the spin-1 field (in a spontaneously broken gauge theory) in the R_\xi gauges for the arbitrary gauge parameter \xi. The result is...

Homework Statement Suppose that we write the Ex and Ey components of a light wave generally as: Ex=Exocos([wt-kz) and Ey=Eyocos(wt-kz+p) Show that at any instant Ex and Ey satisfy the ellipse equation on the Ey vs. Ex coordinate system: (Ex/Exo)2+(Ey/Eyo)2-2(Ex/Exo)(Ey/Eyo)cos(p)=sin2(p)...

I learned something about mie scattering in another thread. But I'm still perplexed, as what makes it different from scattering by air molecules (called Rayleigh scattering). But why doesn't the pattern cause polarization of light?

Why does light still pass through when you have three filters and the first is vertical the second is rotated and the third is horizontal?

I was thinking about how does the 3D glasses(not the one with red and blue lens) work. My first idea is that the lenses are polaroids with orthogonal polarization. So I got a 3D glasses from a cinema and try to prove it. I wear the glasses properly(with the arms on my ears) and then look at...

I am very curious as to why dielectrics such as water have a varying level of reflectivity depending on what angle they are viewed at. For a lake of water, what angle yields 100% (or near 100%) reflectivity? Is this angle the same as the Brewster angle? Also, why exactly is it that metals do...

Let's say we send two photons at same time through double slit: Would interference pattern form if: 1. Both the photons are of different polarization? (i.e. one left polarized and the other right) 2. Both the photons are of same polarization?

Homework Statement If a light beam is circularly polarized and then bounced off a mirror perpendicular to the optical axis, what is the new polarization. My thought is, because circularly polarized light has basically 2 components behaving like waves, each of them is going to experience a...

Question! Polarization of Matter Homework Statement Can you please help me in defining the Polarization of matters and its types? I have searched and found some information about it. But basically I didn't find the difference between its various types (Electronic, Ionic, Dipolar...

Homework Statement [PLAIN]http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/7899/physicsch3333.png Homework Equations I = 0.5*I_0 I = I_0*cos^2(θ) The Attempt at a Solution I_1 = 0.5*I_0*(cos 50)^2 I_2 = I_1*(cos 70)^2 I_3 = I2*(cos 50)^2 This is my attempt at the problem. This is new to...

Can electron self energy diagram contribute to the vacuum polarization? Or is the question meaningful? What's the exact meaning of vacuum polarization? Does it necessarily involve some charged particle? For example, for the ordinary phi^4 theory, can I identify any diagram that can be called...

I am studying about vikings navigation . Vikings use sunstones (e.g. tourmaline) for navigation in cloudy or foggy days. How can they do that? May be they can describe sun position with polarizer cyristal. If it is like that, What is the relationship between navigation and sun position?

Hi all, ( my thought process is confusing me and giving me a headache, so I figured I post my question here...:smile: ) my general question is what happens to the magnetic field of the light after light has been polarized? Does it matter how light has been polarized - going through 'filter' (...

Hi, is a linear polarizer acting like an active element that rotates polarization angle or is it just a passive element? I wonder about this because there is this experiment with three polarizers, where two of them are rotated 90 degree to each other so no light can pass through, and then...

Hi I am trying to find information about the polarization state of a photon after it has been compton scattered. The photon is initially linearly polarized, has a known incoming energy, scattering angle and released energy. Say we ave incoming propagation along the z axis and E field...

Hi! I have a process with multiple feynman diagrams where gluon propagators occur. When I use an axial gauge for the gluon propagator, do I have to use the same n-vector for every propagator? Following this I wonder whether I can use the same n-vector for every polarization sum in axial gauge...

When light is partially reflected by a half-silvered mirror, as in an interferometer, do the reflected and transmitted beams have different polarizations? Is this answer the same for all half-silvered mirrors, or does it depend on the metal coating used and/or the optical properties of the...

I've heard both words used a lot and am having difficulty understanding the two. Is there a difference between them? Thanks in advance

Homework Statement You are standing on the sidewalk, looking toward a shop window. You notice the reflection of a person of your height walking toward you. The reflected light is partially polarized. Is it polarized vertically, horizontally, or somewhere in between? Homework Equations...

In the following article http://books.google.com/books?id=u1DJomI318MC&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=swallow+goldstone+particle&source=bl&ots=2JysrTHS0c&sig=Qq8r6Cw0zSVD38Vfses5BxGX9UQ&hl=en&ei=1M51Tc3hLse6hAeaxJSJBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false it...

Hi all, I know that the photon has spin 1. Does its magnetic number, the m in | \ell m \rangle imply its polarization? For instance if m=1, does that mean it has circular polarization? Personally I see no connection between the two. Thanks for any help.

Hi! I can't wrap my head around the formula \textbf{D} = \epsilon \textbf{E} + \textbf{P}. The electric field, \textbf{E}, goes through the dielectric. It polarizes the atoms/molecules, which creates a field going the opposite way, which cancels out at least part of \textbf{E} (right?)...

Homework Statement A demonstration device consists of two parallel metal plates separated by an insulating support. The device is placed on top of a negatively charged van de Graaff generator. In between the plates are several Stryofoam balls covered with metallic paint. a) Describe what...

An apparatus has these properties when measuring a polarized photon: -whenever a linearly polarized photon at angle \vartheta enters apparatus, it displays "2" -whenever a linearly polarized photon at angle \frac{pi}{2}+\vartheta enters apparatus, it displays "3" -for all other polarizations...

Hey all, I'm studying laser-matter interactions and was wondering: Is there any physical meaning to a non-vanishing polarization field with non-trivial constitutive relation but vanishing divergence? (By non-trivial I mean the constitutive equation does not stipulate that the polarization and...