Does circularly polarized light flip handedness when reflected?

[Sean Torrebadel]

I don't know if it is just my text/sources, but it appears that physics books ignore the phenomenon of left and right polarized light. What I would like help understanding is whether it is possible in the lab to divide plane polarized light into its two circularly polarized components. I know from experience, that it is possible to change the direction of the net polarization by passing light through chemicals- something I vaguely remember doing in 2nd year chem lab at UBC.

Now the point being, that if it is possible to isolate, say, a stream of circularly polarized light. Is it them possible to reflect the said light on a surface and measure to see if the light has remained c-polarized? Or, as I would expect- does it change from left to right, that is-reverse polarize?

Anyone have any experience in this field= or am I just gunna have to do my own experiment?

Thanks

 

[Sean Torrebadel]

Left and Right circularly polarized light discussion

The following link should summarize the phenomenon of left and right circularly polarized light:

http://focus.aps.org/story/v18/st14

1. While I know that there are two components to plane polarized light, namely left and right circularly polarized light. And:

2. That certain chemicals can affect one of these components to cause a shift,

what I want to know is if it is possible to actually isolate a pure left circularly polarized beam of light, that is, to completely separate one component from the other?