Polarization and Scattering

What it shows:

Linearly polarized light, propagating down a long glass tube filled with corn syrup, is made to rotate its direction of polarization by the optically active corn syrup. The intensity of the 90° scattered light varies dramatically, in a...

What it shows:

Certain materials (sugar in this experiment) are optically active because the molecules themselves have a twist in them. When linearly polarized light passes through an optically active material, its direction of polarization is rotated. The...

What it shows:

A linear polarizing filter followed by a quarter-wave plate whose slow and fast axes are at 45° to the axis of the polarizer becomes a circular polarizing filter, and incident unpolarized light emerges as circularly polarized light. This...

What it shows:

Normally isotropic substances can become birefringent when under stress. This property can be used in stress analysis.

How it works:

To use birefringence in stress analysis, the sample is placed between two crossed Polaroids. The first...

What it shows:

Polaroid filters absorb one component of polarization while transmitting the perpendicular components. The intensity of transmitted light depends on the relative orientation between the polarization direction of the incoming light and the...

What it shows:

Polaroid filters absorb one component of polarization while transmitting the perpendicular components. The intensity of transmitted light depends on the relative orientation between the polarization direction of the incoming light and the...

What it shows:

A birefringent substance will split unpolarized light into two polarized rays with different refractive indices and different velocities. A crystal of calcite demonstrates this phenomenon.

How it works:

The optic axis of a crystal is defined...

Simulation of atmospheric scattering and polarization of sunlight using slide projector and aquarium containing milky water.

Video of our demo in action https://youtu.be/y0dhFCsKomk

What it shows:

Unpolarized light passing through a fluid is scattered...

What it shows:

When unpolarized light is reflected from a non-metallic surface, the reflected ray is plane polarized parallel to the reflecting surface if

θ_i + θ_r = 90°

or

tanθ_i = n

where θ_i = incident ray (Brewster's angle), θ_r = refracted ray, n =...