Production and detection of plane

polarized light

 Production: Unpolarised light is allowed pass through a Nicol

prism. The light is split in to ordinary and extraordinary rays.
 The ordinary ray is totally reflected by the Canada balsam
material in the Nicol prism.
 Only extraordinary ray with vibrations parallel to principal
section of Nicol prism emerges which is plane polarized light.
 Detection: Plane Polarised Light beam is allowed to fall on
Nicol prism. The Nicol prism is rotated.
 The intensity of emitted light gradually decrease and become
zero at two positions in each rotation.
 Then the incident light is said to be plane polarized.
 Production of circularly polarized light
 Production: Two waves vibrating at right angles to each other

phase difference of 𝜋/2 or a path difference of 𝜆/4.

having the same amplitude and time period should have a

 A beam of monochromatic light falls on the Nicol prism N1. The

emergent light is plane polarized.
 Another Nicol prism N2 is placed at a suitable distance in the
path of polarized light, and rotated till the field of view is dark,
i.e. they are now crossed.
 A quarter wave plate is introduced between the prisms. The
field of view is not dark. The quarter wave plate is rotated so
that the field of view becomes dark.
 Production of circularly polarized light
 At this position the polarized light falling on the plate has its
vibrations parallel to optic axis of the plate and perpendicular to
N2.
 The quarter wave plate is rotated through 450 so that the
vibrations of light falling on the plate make an angle of 450 with
the optic axis.

is a phase difference of 𝜋/2.

 The amplitudes of vibrations of the two rays are equal and there

 This results in circularly polarized light.

 Detection of circularly polarized light
 Detection: The light beam is allowed to fall on a Nicol prism.
 If on rotation of Nicol prism the intensity of emitted light remains
same, then light is either circularly polarised or unpolarised.
 To differentiate between unpolarised and circularly polarised light, the
light is first passed through quarter wave plate and then through
Nicol prism.
 If beam is circularly polarised then after passing through quarter
wave-plate an extra difference of λ/4 is introduced between ordinary
and extraordinary component and gets converted into plane
polarised.
 Thus on rotating the Nicol, the light can be extinguished at two
places.
 If on the other hand, the beam is unpolarised, it remains unpolarised
after passing through quarter wave plate and on rotating the Nicol,
there is no change in intensity of emitted light.
Production of elliptically polarized light

unequal amplitude should have a phase difference of 𝜋/2 or a path difference

 Production: Two waves vibrating at right angles to each other having the

of 𝜆/4.
 A beam of monochromatic light falls on the Nicol prism N1. The emergent light
is plane polarized.
 Another Nicol prism N2 is placed at a suitable distance in the path of polarized
light, and rotated till the field of view is dark, i.e. they are now crossed.
 A quarter wave plate is introduced between the prisms. The field of view is not
dark. The quarter wave plate is rotated so that the field of view becomes dark.
 At this position the polarized light falling on the plate has its vibrations parallel
to optic axis of the plate and perpendicular to N2.
 The quarter wave plate is rotated through an angle other than 45 0 so that the
vibrations of light falling on the plate make an angle other than 45 0 with the
optic axis.

phase difference of 𝜋/2 between them.

 Now the amplitudes of vibrations of the two rays are unequal and there is a

 This results in elliptically polarized light.

 Detection of elliptically polarized light
 Detection: The light beam is allowed to fall on Nicol prism. If
on rotation of Nicol prism, the intensity of emitted light varies
from maximum to minimum, then light is either elliptically
polarised or a mixture of plane polarized and unpolarised.
 To differentiate between the two, the light is first passed
through quarter wave plate and then through Nicol prism.
 If beam is elliptically polarised, then after passing through
quarter wave plate, an extra path difference of λ/4 is introduced
between O-ray and E-ray and get converted into plane polarized
 Thus, on rotating the Nicol, the light can be extinguished.
 If on the other hand, beam is mixture of polarised and
unpolarised it remains mixture after passing through quarter
wave plate and on rotating the Nicol intensity of emitted light
varies from maximum to minimum.
 Optical activity

The property of a substance by virtue of which it rotates the plane of

polarization the light incident on it.
The substances having this property are called optically active
substances.
E.g.. Quartz, sugar solution, sodium chlorate, etc.
 Optical activity
 Dextro-rotatory or right handed substances are those which
rotate the plane of polarisation in the clockwise direction as
seen from the emergent side, e.g. Cane sugar.
 Laevo-rotatory or left handed substances are those which rotate
the plane of polarisation in the anticlockwise direction as seen
from the emergent side, e.g. Fruit sugar.
 The angle of rotation produced by an optically active substance
depends on
 thickness of a solid substance or length of a solution
 density of a solid substance or concentration of a solution
 temperature
 wavelength of light used
 Specific rotation
 For an optically active solid at a given temperature and for a
given wavelength, the angle of rotation produced () is directly
proportional to the thickness (t)

 The constant S is called the specific rotation or specific rotatory

power of the substance.

 Measured in rad/m
 Specific rotation of an optically active solid substance is defined
as the angle of rotation of the plane of polarisation produced by
the substance of unit thickness a given temperature and for a
given wavelength of light.
 Specific rotation
 For an optically active solution at a given temperature and
for a given wavelength, the angle of rotation produced () is
directly proportional to the length of the solution (L) and
concentration of the solution (C)

 The constant S is called the specific rotation or specific rotatory

power of the solution.

 Measured in radm2/kg
 The specific rotatory power of an optically active solution is
defined as the angle of rotation of the plane of polarisation
produced by the solution of unit length and unit concentration at
a given temperature and for a given wavelength of light.
 Fresnel’s theory of optical
activity
 When plane polarized light is allowed to pass through a crystal
along the optic axis, it is split into two circularly polarized
vibrations rotating in opposite directions with the same
frequency and each with an amplitude half that of the incident
light.
 The velocities of the components are the same in an optically
inactive crystal (e.g. calcite crystal).
 CQ – component of circularly polarized vector rotating to the left
(anti-clockwise) and CP – component rotating to the right
(clockwise).
 The resultant will be along CA.
 Thus there is no rotation.
 Fresnel’s theory of optical
activity
 The velocities of the components are different in an optically
active crystal (e.g. quartz crystals).
 The two component circularly polarized vibrations move forward
with slightly different velocities and have phase difference.
 In case of a right handed quartz crystal, the velocity of clockwise
rotation is more than the anti-clockwise rotation.
 Thus in a dextro-rotatory quartz crystal, the resultant will be
along CA’.
 The plane of vibration of light is rotated through an angle.
 Fresnel’s theory of optical
activity
 In a dextro-rotatory optically active crystal like quartz, the

vibrations, with a phase difference of 𝜙.

clockwise vibrations travel faster than the anticlockwise

 Clockwise: and
 Anticlockwise: and
 The resultant vibration along the X and Y axes:

 The resultant vibrations X and Y are perpendicular to each other,

in the same phase.
 Thus the resultant vibration due to X and Y is plane polarized.
 Fresnel’s theory of optical
activity
 Dividing by ,
 The resultant emergent plane polarized light is inclined at an
angle to the original direction.
 If the refractive index of clockwise vibration is and that if
anticlockwise vibration is , the optical path difference in passing
through a thickness of the crystal
 And the corresponding phase difference,

 For clockwise rotation (dextrorotatory substance)

 For anticlockwise rotation (laeorotatory substance)
 For optically inactive substance , thus
The angle of plane of polarization of an optically active specimen
is 60º per meter, for light of wavelength 5890Å. Calculate the
difference between the refractive indices for right and left
circularly polarized light.
 Laurent's half shade
polarimeter
 A polarimeter is an instrument used to measure the specific
rotatory power of an optically active solution.
 It consists of a glass tube T placed between two Nicol prisms P
called polarizer and A the analyser.
 A half shade device GQ is placed between polarizer and the
tube. It has two semi-circular plates one made of quartz and the
other made of glass.
 A telescope is used to observe the light emerging from the
analyser.
 S is a circular scale fixed to the analyser using which angle of
rotation can be determined.
 Laurent's half shade
polarimeter
 The glass tube is filled with distilled water (without air bubbles).
 Light from a source is made to fall on the polariser. The beam
emerging from P is plane polarised.
 This light falls on the half shade arrangement.
 The plane of vibration of light passing through quartz is rotated
while the plane of vibration of light passing through glass
remains unaltered.
 Hence the field of view seen through the telescope will have two
distinct halves.
 Laurent's half shade
polarimeter
 The principal section of analyser A is made symmetric with
respect to the planes of vibration of light passing through quartz
and glass so that both the halves appear equally bright.
 The reading R0 in the analyser is noted.
 The tube is then filled with optically active solution of known
concentration (C).
 The solution rotates the planes of vibration of both the halves
through the same angle. Thus the brightness of the two halves
will be different again.
 Analyser is rotated until the two halves have the same
brightness and the reading R is noted.
 R ~ R0 gives the angle of rotation.
 Specific rotatory power is:
100 cc of an aqueous solution containing 10 g of sugar is kept in a
polarimeter tube 20 cm long in the path of plane polarized light. If
the specific rotation of sugar 6.6°, calculate the angle of rotation of
the plane of polarization.
Calculate the concentration of a solution of length 0.2 m which
produces an optical rotation of 40º. The specific rotation of the
solution is 0.0697 radm2/kg.