When.com Web Search

Search results

  1. Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
  2. Huygens principle of double refraction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huygens_principle_of...

    The first is plane or linear polarization, the second is elliptical polarization, and the third is circular polarization. The light may also be partially polarized in addition to these. The polarization of light cannot be determined by the human eye on its own. However, some animals and insects have a vision that is sensitive to polarization. [1]

  3. Brewster's angle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster's_angle

    Gas lasers using an external cavity (reflection by one or both mirrors outside the gain medium) generally seal the tube using windows tilted at Brewster's angle. This prevents light in the intended polarization from being lost through reflection (and reducing the round-trip gain of the laser) which is critical in lasers having a low round-trip ...

  4. Birefringence - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birefringence

    Determination of the change in polarization state using such an apparatus is the basis of ellipsometry, by which the optical properties of specular surfaces can be gauged through reflection. Birefringence measurements have been made with phase-modulated systems for examining the transient flow behaviour of fluids.

  5. Fresnel rhomb - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_rhomb

    After one reflection at the appropriate angle, the p component is advanced by 1/8 of a cycle relative to the s component (middle graph). After two such reflections, the phase difference is 1/4 of a cycle (bottom graph), so that the polarization is elliptical with axes in the s and p directions.

  6. Stokes parameters - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokes_parameters

    The Stokes I, Q, U and V parameters. The Stokes parameters are a set of values that describe the polarization state of electromagnetic radiation.They were defined by George Gabriel Stokes in 1851, [1] [2] as a mathematically convenient alternative to the more common description of incoherent or partially polarized radiation in terms of its total intensity (I), (fractional) degree of ...

  7. Optic axis of a crystal - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optic_axis_of_a_crystal

    The internal structure of crystals (the specific structure of the crystal lattice, and the specific atoms or molecules of which it is composed) causes the speed of light in the material, and therefore the material's refractive index, to depend on both the light's direction of propagation and its polarization. The dependence on polarization ...

  8. Jones calculus - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_calculus

    The Jones vector describes the polarization of light in free space or another homogeneous isotropic non-attenuating medium, where the light can be properly described as transverse waves. Suppose that a monochromatic plane wave of light is travelling in the positive z -direction, with angular frequency ω and wave vector k = (0,0, k ), where the ...

  9. Plane of polarization - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_of_polarization

    Fresnel's "plane of polarization", traditionally used in optics, is the plane containing the magnetic vectors (B & H) and the wave-normal. Malus's original "plane of polarization" was the plane containing the magnetic vectors and the ray. (In an isotropic medium, θ = 0 and Malus's plane merges with Fresnel's.)