Question

When light is reflected at Brewster’s angle from a smooth surface, it is 100% polarized parallel to the surface. Part of the light will be refracted into the surface. Describe how you would do an experiment to determine the polarization of the refracted light. What direction would you expect the polarization to have, and would you expect it to be 100%?

a. Use a polarizing filter to analyze the refracted light; polarization is parallel to the surface.
b. Use a polarizing filter to analyze the refracted light; polarization is perpendicular to the surface.
c. Use a diffraction grating to analyze the refracted light; polarization is parallel to the surface.
d. Use a diffraction grating to analyze the refracted light; polarization is perpendicular to the surface.

Answer 1

To determine the polarization of refracted light at Brewster's angle, you would use a polarizing filter and expect the light to be partially perpendicularly polarized. While reflected light is fully parallel polarized at this angle, the refracted light is not 100% polarized due to energy conservation.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the polarization of the refracted light when light is reflected at Brewster's angle, you would conduct an experiment using a polarizing filter. This filter can be rotated to analyze the intensity of the light passing through it, which changes based on the orientation of the polarized light in relation to the axis of the filter. According to Brewster's law, light reflected off a surface at this angle will be fully polarized parallel (p-polarized) to the surface. However, for the refracted light, we would expect the polarization to be partially perpendicularly polarized (s-polarized) as well. This is because, while the reflected light is fully p-polarized, the refracted light is only partially polarized due to the conservation of energy as some of the light is also reflected.