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polarized light Dictionary Terms

polarizer
An optical device capable of transforming unpolarized or natural light into polarized light, usually by selective...
azimuth angle
1. In astronomy, the angle measured clockwise (eastward) in a horizontal plane, usually from north (true north, Y-north,...
Savart polariscope
1. A polariscope consisting of a Savart plate and a tourmaline plate analyzer, and used to produce parallel color fringes by...
circular birefringence
The optical phenomenon in which right circularly polarized light transmitted by an active medium travels at a different...
Stokes parameters
The parameters, relative to polarized light and the Poincaré sphere, that are usually represented as: I, the intensity of...
Savart plate
A double-plate device used to transmit polarized light and form interference fringes of the light, thus indicating its...
dichroism
Dichroism refers to the property of certain materials to exhibit different colors or absorbance of light depending on the...
compensator
An optical element that measures the phase difference between two components of elliptically polarized light to correct for...
circularly polarized light
A light beam whose electric vectors can be broken into two perpendicular elements that have equal amplitudes and that differ...
pleochroism
The property exhibited by certain birefringent crystals in which the degree with which they transmit polarized light is...
retarder cell
A device that uses nematic liquid crystals sandwiched between fused silica substrates to change the phase of polarized...
Nicol prism
A prism invented by William Nicol in 1828 that is made of calcite, the end faces of which are ground to an angle of 68°...
polarization
Polarization refers to the orientation of oscillations in a transverse wave, such as light waves, radio waves, or other...
magneto-optics
Magneto-optics refers to the study and manipulation of the interaction between magnetic fields and light (electromagnetic...
polarization-insensitive operation
Capability requirement for optical switches for transmission lines to process arbitrarily polarized light because of the...
polarizing filter
A filter that polarizes light passing through it. It is possible to fabricate sheets of plastic or gelatin that contain...
nematic phase
A form of liquid crystal with an appearance of moving, threadlike structures, particularly visible when observed in thick...
enantiomer
A molecule that is the mirror image of another molecule. The two mirror-image molecules have the same chemical properties;...
linear polarization
See plane-polarized light; polarization.
plane-polarized light
A light beam whose electric vectors all vibrate in a single fixed plane.
dextrogyrate
Able to rotate the plane of polarization of a transmitted, plane-polarized light beam clockwise as seen by a viewer looking...
dichroscopic eyepiece
An eyepiece used in a polariscope or polarizing microscope to give a comparison view of the same object under illumination...
photoelasticity
The process of determining, with the aid of plane-polarized light, the stress distribution in materials under complex...
Malus's law
A law that uses the square of the cosine between the plane of polarization of a beam of plane-polarized light and the plane...
ellipsometry
Ellipsometry is an optical technique used to characterize the properties of thin films and surfaces. It is based on the...
photoelastic
In optics, the double refraction that is produced when stress is applied to a transparent material. Plastics, which are...
strain viewer
A viewer that uses the transmittance of polarized light through glass or a similar medium to examine strained regions. See...
polarizing prism
A device that is used to produce or analyze plane-polarized light. It may be a Nicol prism or some other form of calcite...
optical activity
The capacity of a chiral substance such as a crystal or molecule to rotate the plane of polarized light that is transmitted...
half-shade device
A device for forming at least two adjacent areas of polarized light. The angle between the directions of vibration of the...
circular dichroism
Circular dichroism (CD) is a spectroscopic technique used to study the structural characteristics of chiral (asymmetric)...
petrographic specimen preparation
The grinding and polishing of rock samples, to a thickness of less than 0.05 mm, for study with petrographic microscopes....
ellipsometer
A spectrometer equipped with polarizing prisms and retardation plates that is used in the analysis of elliptically polarized...
meso form
A form of an element that cannot demonstrate optical activity as a result of dextrogyrate and levogyrate effects that are...
smectic phase
A form of liquid crystal in which flow does not take place in the usual manner. When examined with polarized light, the...
electric dichroism spectroscopy
The use of a krypton laser system for the measurement of small molecules aligned by an electric field, by analyzing the...
Bertrand lens
A small convergent lens, located between the objective and eyepiece of a microscope, that focuses an image of the upper...
Iceland spar
Also called calcite. A natural hexagonal crystal of calcium carbonate. It cleaves readily into rhomboids useful in the study...
allogyric birefringence
Left- and right-hand circularly polarized beams that are produced at different velocities by passing plane-polarized light...
analyzer
An optical device, such as a Nicol prism, capable of producing plane-polarized light, and used for detecting the effect of...
differential interference contrast microscopy
Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical...
Laurent polarimeter
A Laurent polarimeter is an instrument used in optics for measuring the rotation of plane-polarized light caused by...
retardance
The degree of angular shift in the phase of incoming polarized light.
transmission plane
In polarized light, the plane of vibration that a polarizer will transmit.
Martens wedge
A wedge-shaped piece of quartz typically found in a polarimeter to monitor and rotate the plane of polarization of plane...
elliptically polarized light
A light beam whose electric vectors are broken into two elements of unlike amplitudes that are perpendicular to each other...
Lippich prism
A small half-shade analyzer placed in the eyepiece of a polarimeter to determine the character of the polarized light...
half-wave voltage
That voltage required across a Pockels, Kerr or other electro-optic light modulator to retard one polarization electrical...
linear receive optics
Linear receive optics typically refers to the optical components and systems used in the reception (detection) of linearly...
double refraction
The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such...
liquid core optical fiber
Multimode straight fiber capable of transporting linearly polarized light with any incident polarization angle, and in which...
extinction
1. The near total absorption of plane-polarized light by a polarizer that has an axis perpendicular to the plane of...

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