Why reflection causes polarisation of light

Thread starter maxbur
Start date Apr 17, 2012
Tags

Light Polarisation Reflection

AI Thread Summary

Reflection causes the polarization of light due to the interaction of light waves with a reflective surface, where certain orientations of light waves are preferentially absorbed or reflected. When light reflects at a specific angle, known as Brewster's angle, the reflected light becomes completely plane polarized. This occurs because the electric field vectors of the light waves aligned with the surface are more likely to be absorbed, while those perpendicular to the surface are reflected. Phase differential refers to the difference in phase between the light waves that are reflected and those that are refracted, contributing to the polarization effect. Understanding these concepts is crucial for applications in optics and photography.

Apr 17, 2012

maxbur

Hello all

I know that polarisation of light can occur from reflection, and when the reflected ray is 90degrees from the refracted ray the relfected light is 100% plane polarised.
So, my question is why is it that reflection causes polarisation of light?

Thanks

Science news on Phys.org

Apr 17, 2012

fadly

because the light on the vertical plane were annihilated through phase differential.

Apr 18, 2012

maxbur

Ok, and what is phase differential?

Thread 'Simple math model for a Particle Image Velocimetry system'

Hello togehter, I am new to this forum and hope this post followed all the guidelines here (I tried to summarized my issue as clean as possible, two pictures are attached). I would appreciate every help: I am doing research on a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system. For this I want to set a simple math model for the system. I hope you can help me out. Regarding this I have 2 main Questions. 1. I am trying to find a math model which is describing what is happening in a simple Particle...

View full post »

Thread 'How to model converging illumination through object plane (in ZEMAX)'

Hello community, I'm designing a projection lens system for a 35mm film projector in Zemax OpticStudio and struggling with the correct sequential mode setup for the illumination geometry. The light source is a Xenon short-arc lamp reflected by an ellipsoid mirror, which creates a converging cone with a 40.6 degree full angle that passes through the film gate. The film gate is my object plane, but the light doesn't diverge from it like a typical Lambertian source. Instead, the converging...

View full post »