Engineering Physics

14.21 Theory of circular and elliptically polarized light

A beam of plane polarized light can be obtained from a Nicol prism. This beam of plane polarized light is made incident normally on the surface of a calcite crystal cut parallel to its optic axis.

As shown in Fig. 14.32(a), let the plane of polarization of the incident beam make an angle θ with the optic axis and let the amplitude of this incident light be A.

 

Figure 14.32 (a) Plane wave incident on calcite crystal; (b) e-ray and o-ray light amplitudes in calcite crystal

As polarized light enters into the calcite crystal, it will split into two components, e-ray and o-ray. The e-ray ...