d) Now, a ray of 500nm vertically polarized light passes through a 1cm block of
ID: 2061389 • Letter: D
Question
d) Now, a ray of 500nm vertically polarized light passes through a 1cm block of circularly dichroic material. The indices of refraction are equal for both left- and right-circularly polarized light. It turns out that the block absorbs half of the left-circularly polarized light but none of the right-handed light. The resulting exit beam is therefore elliptically polarized. What is the ratio of that elllipse's major axis vs its semi-major axis?
e)What will be the orientation of that ellipse's major axis? Use the same convention used in part c.
Explanation / Answer
In electrodynamics, circular polarization of an electromagnetic wave is a polarization in which the electric field of the passing wave does not change strength but only changes direction in a rotary type manner. In electrodynamics the strength and direction of an electric field is defined by what is called an electric field vector. In the case of a circularly polarized wave, as seen in the accompanying animation, the tip of the electric field vector, at a given point in space, describes a circle as time progresses. If the wave is frozen in time, the electric field vector of the wave describes a helix along the direction of propagation. Circular polarization is a limiting case of the more general condition of elliptical polarization. The other special case is the easier-to-understand linear polarization.
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