EXPERIMENT 3
Fresnel Reflection
1. Reflectivity of polarized light
The reflection of a polarized beam of light from a dielectric
material such as air/glass was described by Augustin Jean Fresnel in
1823. While his derivation was based on an elastic theory of light
waves, the same results are found with electromagnetic theory. The
ratio of the reflected intensity to the incident intensity is called
the reflectivity of the surface. It depends on the polarization of the
incident light wave. Let be the angle of incidence and be the
angle of transmission. Snell’s law relates these according to the
refractive index in each media and :
( ) ( ) (1)
The reflectivity for light polarized parallel to the plane of incidence
(known as p-polarized light) is
( )
( )
(2)
but for light polarized perpendicular to the plane of incidence (known
as s-polarized light) it is
( )
( )
(3)
Notice that for p-polarized light the denominator of the right hand
side will be infinite when the sum ( ) . The angle of
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incidence when this happens is called Brewster’s angle, . For
light polarized in the plane of incidence, no energy is reflected at
Brewster’s angle, i.e. .
2. Making the measurements
Getting started:
A He-Ne laser (632.8 nm) beam is reflected from the front face of
a prism on a rotating table. You can read the angle of rotation of
the table from the precision index and vernier. It is very important
to locate the center of the prism over the axis of rotation. Do this
as best you can by eye. As the prism is rotated so that the light
grazes its surface the laser will miss the prism unless everything is
aligned well.
Find the reading for normally incident light:
Rotate the table so that the laser beam returns back to the face
of the laser, centered exactly on the laser aperture. You may need to
level the laser beam by adjusting the screws on its support. Read the
angular scale on the table carefully. This is the reference for all
future measurements of angle since rotations from this angle change
the angle of incidence from by exactly that amount. Figure 2.1
illustrates a horizontal view of the experiment.
Measure the light intensity at different angles:
Turn on the voltmeter. Its reading measures the intensity of the
light in the beam from the output voltage of a selenium photovoltaic
cell. Set the electric vector of the polarizer horizontal: the
indices on the polarizing filter mark the direction of the electric
vector of the transmitted light. The light leaving the horizontal
polarizer is now polarized in the plane of incidence. Take a direct
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reading of the laser after the beam passes through the polarizer.
When you make this measurement, insert an attenuation filter to reduce
the intensity of the direct laser beam so that it is comparable to the
reflected light you will be measuring. This minimizes the importance
of nonlinear response from the detector for very intense sources.
Remove the neutral density filter, and follow with a series of ten or
more readings of the reflected light intensity for different angles of
the prism table. You cannot measure normal incidence, since the
reflected light just goes back to the laser in that case. You also
cannot measure grazing incidence, but from about to the reflected
beam is accessible.
Figure 2.1: Light from the laser at the right is directed to
the center of a face of a prism on a rotating table in this
horizontal view of the Fresnel coefficient experiment. The
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laser is leveled so that the beam returns exactly back on
itself. The prism is adjusted so that its face is exactly
over the axis of rotation of the mounting.
Correct, tabulate, and graph the results:
Subtract the table angle for normal incidence from the other
angle measurements. The table reading corrected in this way is just
the angle of incidence. Tabulate these measurements and plot the
measured intensity divided by the incident signal measurement versus
this angle. Remember that you had an attenuation filter in when you
measured the laser directly, so you must multiply those measurements
by the filter factor.
Repeat it again with perpendicular polarization:
Rotate the polarizer to make the light polarized perpendicular
to the plane of incidence, and take another set of about 10
measurements. Tabulate, correct, and plot these measurements on a
separate graph.
3. Analysis of your results
Determine Brewster’s angle
The intensity of the light polarized parallel to the plane of
incidence should go to zero at Brewster’s angle. Determine Brewster’s
angle from the graph as accurately as you can. According to the
Fresnel equations, Brewster’s angle is related to n by
( ) (2)
Consider that in our experiment the incident medium is air with
. Determine the index of refraction of the glass from your
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experimental data.
Compare to the theoretical equations:
Calculate a series of values for the Fresnel equations using the
index of refraction determined from Brewster’s angle. Create files on
the PC with your experimental and calculated values. Plot the
calculated reflectivities on the same graphs with the experimental
data. The curves should be very similar. If they are on really
different scales, you may have made an error normalizing the signal to
the direct laser light. If so, check how you corrected for the
attenuation filter. Include screen dumps of the graphs with your lab
report.
Identify the source of errors:
There are sure to be discrepancies remaining between your
measurements and the values of the Fresnel reflectivities. Identify
the source of any major differences.
And think about:
Why do we use a prism in this experiment, rather than a glass
plate? Why doesn’t the reflected beam go away entirely at Brewster’s
angle when the polarization is parallel to the plane of incidence?
