MALUS LAW

Alex Nicole C. Argales

 MALUS LAW

 A law stating that the intensity of a beam of a plane-

polarized light after passing through a rotatable polarizer
varies as the square of the cosine of the angle through
which the polarizer is rotated from the position that gives
maximum intensity
 ETIENNE-LOUIS MALUS

 July 23,1775 – February 24 1812 ( 36 years old)

 His discovery of the polarization of light by reflection
was published in1809 and his theory of double reflection
of light in crystals was published in 1810
 POLARIZER

 An optical filter that lets light waves of a specific

polarization pass through while blocking light waves of
other polarizations. It can filter a beam of light of
undefined or mixed polarization into a beam of well-
defined polarization, that is polarized light
 UNPOLARIZED LIGHT
 A light wave that is vibrating in more than one plane

POLARIZED LIGHT
 Light waves in which the vibration occurs in a single
plane
I= intensity of
light

I0= intensity of
light before
entering polaroid

θ= angle between
two polaroids
1.) Unpolarized light with an intensity of 100 W/m 2 passes through
two polarizing filters that are oriented at angle of 40 degrees to
each other. What is the intensity of light that emerges from each?

 I1 = 50 W/m2
 I2 = 29.3 W/m2
2.) Polarized light with an intensity I0 passes through two polarizing
filters that are 900 with respect to each other. What is the intensity of
light that emerges through each filter in terms of I 0?

 I1 = ½ I0
 I2 = 0
3.) Unpolarized light with intensity I0 passes through the polarizing filter. The second
filter makes a 450 angle relative to the first one. The third filter makes a 900 angle relative
to the first one. Determine the intensity of light emerging from each filter in terms of I 0.

 I1 = ½ I 0
 I2 = ¼ I 0
 I3 = 1/8 I0
4.) Unpolarized light with an intensity of 200 W/m2 passes through two polarizing
filters. The first filter has an angle of 18 degrees. The second filter has an angle of
43 degrees. What is the intensity of the light emerging from each filter?

 I1 = 100 W/m2
 I2 = 82.14 W/m2