Content
• Review of undergraduate optics about
3. Polarization of light waves
An under-rated dimension
1 2
Review of undergraduate
optics about polarization
Ch.08 of Optics by Hecht
Only the light polarization part
3
polarization
• The concept of polarization
• Polarization of monochromatic plane
waves
• Complex number representation
• Jones-vector representation
The nature of polarized light
• EM wave is a vector wave.
• E and H fields are (more or less) perpendicular
to the wave propagation vector.
– EM waves are transverse waves.
• The oscillating physical quantity vector direction
of a transverse wave is the direction of its
polarization.
• Usually, we refer the E-field direction of an EM
wave to be its polarization direction.
• Note that the polarization direction we referred is
not a vector, it’s a “director”.
 Linear polarization Linear polarization (cont’d)
For an EM wave propagates along z-axis, its E-field component must be on the A special case is when  = 0.
x-y plane. y y
  

x Ey  
E  z , t   ˆiE0 x  ˆjE0 y cos  kz  t 
x Ey
Generally, the E-field along x- and y-
axes can be written separately.
  The E-fields along x- and y-axes have the 
E x  z , t   ˆiE0 x cos  kz  t  Ex same phase. Therefore, the vector sum is Ex
  
E y  z , t   ˆjE0 y cos  kz  t    k z just the amplitude vector sum of each k z
component. The oscillation term remains y
the same.
Therefore, the total E-field is x
  
E  z, t   E x  z, t   E y  z, t 

The final EM wave is still a linearly polarized

EM wave yet along a different direction.  z
k

Linear polarization (cont’d) Circular polarization

Another special case is when  = .
y Consider the equal amplitude condition E0 x  E0 y  E0 y
  
 
E  z , t   ˆiE0 x  ˆjE0 y cos  kz  t 
x

Ey
For phase difference   
2
 2m
x Ey

 m  0,  1,  2,
E x  z, t   ˆiE0 cos  kz  t 
The E-fields along x- and y-axes have the 
E y  z, t   ˆjE0 sin  kz  t      ˆjE0 sin  kz  t  
opposite phase. Therefore, the vector sum Ex 
 
is also the amplitude vector sum of each Ex  k z
k z   y
component. The oscillation term remains y 2
the same. 
E  z, t   E0  ˆi cos  kz  t   ˆj sin  kz  t   x
x
 
E  E  E0
The final EM wave is still a linearly polarized
The amplitude is a constant.
EM wave yet along a different direction. Also, 
 But the direction varies with k
z
the polarization direction is symmetric to the x-
k z time.
or y-axes to the previous case.
 Circular polarization (cont’d) Circular polarization (cont’d)

E  z , t   E0 ˆi cos  kz  t   ˆj sin  kz  t  

With fixed t as z increases, the With fixed z as t increases, the

 0 E-field points differently E-field points differently
(counterclockwise) on a circle (clockwise) on a circle and has
and has the same amplitude. the same amplitude.
1 1

sin( zt
sin  )  sin (  t  )
1 0 1 1 0 1

1 1

cos( tz) 
cos cos (  t) This is along time at a specific position.

Circular polarization (cont’d) Circular polarization (cont’d)

   
E  z , t   E0 ˆi cos  kz  t   ˆj sin  kz  t   E  z , t   E0 ˆi cos  kz  t   ˆj sin  kz  t   E  z , t   E0 ˆi cos  kz  t   ˆj sin  kz  t   E  z , t   E0 ˆi cos  kz  t   ˆj sin  kz  t  
Right-circularly polarized Left-circularly polarized
Right-circularly polarized Left-circularly polarized




Left or right is hard to remember

and is not that important to
remember.
Tracing back (reverse to the wave
propagation direction), clockwise
rotation direction of the E-field is
right-circularly polarized.
 
E  z , t   2 E0 ˆi cos  kz  t  E  z , t   2 E0 ˆj sin  kz  t 
Linear combination of e- and _ -circularly polarized light can generate
linearly polarized lights. And the generated linearly polarized lights are
perpendicular to each other.

This is along space at a specific time.

 Elliptical polarization Elliptical polarization (cont’d)
A more general case, A more general case, The E-field has an elliptical shape.
  Therefore, it’s called the elliptical
E  z , t   E0 x ˆi cos  kz   t   E0 y ˆj cos  kz   t    E  z , t   E0 x ˆi cos  kz   t   E0 y ˆj cos  kz   t    polarization.
E0 x  2, E0 y  1 y The derivation of elliptical polarization
E0 x  2, E0 y  1 is well presented. Just check them.
 0   /4 E0 y


x
E0 x

2 E0 x E0 y cos 
tan 2 
E02x  E02y

Polarization state Natural light

Linearly polarized – c –state • General light source contains large
Circularly polarized – e – or _ –state
number of atoms oriented randomly.
Elliptically polarized – X –state
• Every single light wavetrain has a specific
Note that linearly polarized light essentially contain two states, the two
perpendicular states. polarization.
The mutually perpendicular two c –states can be linearly combined to
generate any polarization state.
• Every two light wavetrains are not
correlated in general.
e – and _ –state can be linearly combined
to generate c –states and X –states as well. • Therefore, natural light is usually randomly
Polarization is a 2D vector space. polarized.
Two perpendicular c –states form a complete
orthonormal set. e– and _ –states form another
complete orthonormal set.
 Angular momentum and photon Angular momentum and photon
picture picture (cont’d)
Photon carries angular momentum  and it is independent to wavelength.
h
Photon carries linear momentum. p 
 Such angular momentum relates to the spin of photon it can be positive or
negative.
A circularly polarized light carries angular
momentum since the E-field rotates and
may induce a circular motion of charged
particles (electron).
torque Angular momentum
The transferred power is
dE 
   
dL dW d  x  F 
dt dt Just like P    x  F
dt dt
Linearly polarized light is simply a beam that has equal amount of R – and L –
E  h   dp state photons.
F
dt
E Each photon carries angular momentum Linearly polarized light consists no total angular momentum.
L  of .


Polarizers Polarizers (cont’d)

Polarizer is a category of optical elements.
Polarizers regulate the polarization of the incident light into a know
polarization state.

The wire-grid polarizer Just simple metal wires along

one direction.
Electrons move freely along the
wire and absorb incident E-field
along this direction.

http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k16940&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup21276 http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/ake-mate/wgf/en/ http://www.plymouthgrating.com/Applications/Applications%20Page.htm http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/ake-mate/wgf/en/

 Dichroic crystals Polaroid
Crystals with different absorption/reflection for light along different Herapathite, iodoquinine sulfate
polarization direction are called the dichroic crystals.

1928
Tourmaline

http://www.polaroideyewear.com/default/about-polaroid-eyewear/history.html
http://www.gemstonesandrough.com/html/_blue_green_tourmaline_rough.html http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2009/06/19/sunglasses-x-rays-and-dog-wee-whats-the-connection/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167931707007745 http://www.chem.uoa.gr/chemicals/chem_quinine.htm http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/40110/1/CCsci1_07_09

Malus’s law Malus’s law (cont’d)

Linear polarizer has a transmission axis. The passed light will be
y exactly linearly polarized along this axis.
E0
x In other words, only the component along the
polarizer transmission axis can pass the polarizer.

 z E0 cos 
k

E0
Another polarizer is added after the original polarizer.
The second one is also known as the analyzer.
c 0 2
 I    E01 cos 2 
E0 cos  As discussed before, polarization is a 2D vector space. 2
As mentioned earlier, any polarization state Projection can be made. or
can be represented as the linear combination I    I  0  cos 2 
of two orthogonal polarization states.
Malus’s law
 The concept of polarization
We use “scalar” wave approximation in last chapter to describe the
wave propagation. However, a complete description of an EM wave
need to know all E, H, D and B which are vectors.
In many substances the index of refraction depends on the direction of
oscillation of E.

Back to Ch.03 E

e
E

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Polarization of monochromatic Polarization of monochromatic

plane waves plane waves (cont’d)
The polarization direction of an EM wave is specified by Er, t  E x  Ax
2
e 
1 i  t  k z  x 

 c.c.


1 i  t k z  y 
E y  Ay e 
 c.c.

Er, t   Re Ae i  t k r   2

Wave propagation along z-direction    y   x Phase

difference!

Ez , t   Re Aei  t  k z  
y
Along xy-plane and has phase term Ax
i
A  xˆ Ax e i x  yˆ Ay e y General elliptical equation
E x  Ax cos t  kz   x  Ay 2
 cos  
E y  Ay cos t  kz   y  x B 2  4 AC  4  4 1 1 0
A A  Ax2 Ay2
 x y 

27 28
Polarization of monochromatic Polarization of monochromatic
plane waves (cont’d) plane waves (cont’d)
Elliptically polarized Circularly polarized Linearly polarized

Coordinate transform

Where

a 2  Ax2 cos2   Ay2 sin 2   2 Ax Ay cos  cos  sin 

b2  Ax2 sin 2   Ay2 cos2   2 Ax Ay cos  cos  sin 

2 Ax Ay
tan 2  cos 
Ax2  Ay2 E x  cos t  k z 
29 E y  cos t  k z    30

Polarization of monochromatic Polarization of monochromatic

plane waves (cont’d) plane waves (cont’d)

1
Ex  cos t  k z 
2
E y  cos t  k z    31 32
 Polarization of monochromatic
Complex-number representation
plane waves (cont’d)
Linear and circular polarization Polarization has two major component, amplitude and phase difference.
Therefore a complex number is enough to represent a polarization state.
Ay 
i  y  x 
     i  e i tan  e
Ax
Linearly polarized


0
2

Circularly polarized Negative for right-handed 

Positive for left-handed Inclination angle

Elliptically polarized
Ellipticity angle
b
e ellipticity
a
33 34

Jones-vector representation Jones-vector representation (cont’d)

y
1941 R. C. Jones Linear polarization
E
 Ax ei x  Jones vector contains complex information about
J  Linearly polarized light can be written as  x
 Ay ei y  the field amplitudes and phases of the electric
 
field.
 Ax ei x  xˆ *  yˆ  0

J   J  Ax e  i x Ay e
 i y
  A e
i y
  Ax2  Ay2  1
 polarizations are orthogonal
 y 
Circular polarization
To obtain the real field component,

  
E x t   Re J x ei t  Re Ax ei  t  x   Right-handed circular polarization

Left-handed circular polarization

Left- and right-handed circular polarizations are orthogonal

35 36
Jones-vector representation (cont’d) Jones-vector representation (cont’d)
Since Jones-vector is rank 2 column matrix, any two orthogonal General Jones-vector
vectors can be used as the basis to represent any vector by their linear  cos 
combination. J  ,     i 
ˆ  E Lˆ  e sin 
E  E xˆ  E yˆ  E R
x y R L

Complex

Circular polarization contains x

and y polarization with equal
amplitude yet the phase
difference is  / 2.

37 38

Selected problems
• 3.3
• 3.5
• 3.8

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