12.

Polarised Light
Purpose
Verification of Malus law by measuring the transmission of a laser beam through two
polarisers.

Equipment
Optical bench
Light source with power supply
Polarising filters (2)
Photodetector
Digital multimeter
Cylindrical plexiglass tank
White metal screen

CAUTION
Be careful with the plastic mounts on the optical bench.

Theory
Light waves are electromagnetic waves, which travel through space at a finite velocity c (the
speed of light). Light waves are transverse electromagnetic waves in which the electric and
magnetic field vectors are perpendicular to each other and to the direction of propagation of
the wave. The magnitudes of the electric and magnetic field vectors are sinusoidally
vibrating.
A beam of ordinary white light is made up of millions of electromagnetic wave packets called
photons (see Serway and Jewett 40.4), each with its own frequency and its own planes of
vibration of the electric and magnetic field vectors. There are waves oscillating in all
possible planes and with all possible frequencies. This is called unpolarised light.
It is possible to produce light in which the vibrations occur in just one of the many possible
planes through the axis of propagation. Such light is called linearly polarised light, and there
are several different methods for obtaining it (see Serway and Jewett 38.6). In this
experiment we will use polarisation by selective absorption: the light emitted by a small lamp
passes through a polarising filter, to produce linearly polarised light.

The polarising filter or polariser consists of a sheet of polariod, a material which only
transmits the component of the electric field vector parallel to the polariod axis. The
component of the electric field vector perpendicular to the polariod axis is completely
absorbed.
A second polariser can be used to analyse the direction of polarisation of linearly polarised
light. If the light beam is vertically polarised and the axis of the second polariser is set
vertically, the light beam will be fully transmitted, but if the polariser axis is set horizontally
the light will be fully absorbed. If the polariser axis is set at an angle wrt. the vertical, the
component of the electric field vector transmitted by the second polariser is:

E tr = E 0 cos
where E0 is the amplitude of the electric field vector of the light transmitted by the first
polariser. Because the intensity of the transmitted beam is proportional to the square of the
electric field magnitude, the intensity of the transmitted beam is given by:
I ( ) = I 0 cos 2

(12.1)

This expression is known as Malus law.

Experiment 1. Calibration of the photodetector

The photodetector is a light dependent resistor (LDR) made from cadmium sulphide, a
semiconductor material prepared such that it contains no or very few free electrons when kept
in complete darkness. Its resistance is therefore quite high. When it absorbs light, electrons
are liberated (from the valence band into the conduction band) and the material becomes
more conducting. Cadmium sulphide is therefore also called a photoconductor. When the
light is switched off, the electrons are captured again in the states where they originally came
from and the photoconductor turns again into an insulator.
The relation between the resistance R and the light intensity I can be expressed to good
approximation by:
R=

B
I

(12.2)

where and B are constant which depends on the sample of cadmium sulphide used. Values
of around 0.5 - 0.9 are typical. To calibrate the detector, we need a method to measure .
If a point source emits light uniformly in all directions, the energy at a distance r from the
source is distributed uniformly on a spherical surface of radius r and area A = 4 r 2 . The
power per unit area, that is incident perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the light,
is called the intensity I of the source. The SI unit for intensity is W/m2. Thus, the intensity of
a point source varies inversely with the square of the distance from the point source:

I=

P
P
=
A 4 r 2

(12.3)

This is illustrated in figure 12.1.

point
source

photo
detector

d=1
I=1

d=2
I = 1/4

d=3
I = 1/9

Figure 12.1. The intensity of a point source observed by a photodetector is

inversely proportional to the square of its distance.

To good approximation the lamp in the light source is a point source, and we can make use of
the inverse-square law to calibrate the detector. By combining equations (12.2) and (12.3)
we find:

4 2
R = B
r
P

ln R = 2 ln r + C

with C = ln B(4 / P ) .
Put the photodetector on the optical bench and with the light bulb turned off record the
resistance due to the intensity of the background light. If this resistance is less than about
25 k, you will have to reduce the background light. Turn on the light source and place it at
one end of the bench in front of the photodetector. Take a set of readings of light intensity
recorded by the photodetector as a function of the distance r between the photodetector and
the bulb. Record all your measurements in a table in your lab notebook.
r [m]

R []

ln r

ln R

Make a graph of ln R versus ln r. Verify that your data points appear on a straight line, and
obtain from the slope of the line.

Experiment 2. Malus law

In this experiment put the light source and the detector at fixed positions on the bench and
place both polarisers between them, such that the light from the light source passes through
both polarisers onto the photodetector. Make sure that all optical components are aligned.
The first polarising filter is set at 0 to produce linearly polarised light with the polarisation in
the horizontal plane. The intensity of polarised laser light transmitted by the second polariser
is measured as a function of the angle of the polariser. From equation (12.3) we obtain:

I R 1 /
Take a set of readings from = 0 to 180 in 10 steps. Evaluate R 1 / for each reading of
R. Verify Malus law by making graphs of R 1 / as a function of the polariser angle .
Questions:
1. Did you find that the maximum intensities were at = 0 and 180 or was there an offset in
the angle?
2. Did you obtain complete extinction of the light beam when the axes of the polarising filers
were at 90 wrt. one another?

Experiment 3. Optical activity of two sugar solutions

Optical activity is the rotation of linearly polarized light as it travels through certain
materials, for example a solution of chiral molecules such as sucrose (a sugar). A chiral
molecule is a molecule that that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image.

Figure 12.3. A sucrose molecule.

The specific rotatory power of a substance is defined as:

[ ]T =

Lc

where [ ]T represents the specific rotatory power at a temperature T and wavelength , is

the rotation of the polarization plane of the light, L is the path length through the substance
(in our case 10 cm), and c is the concentration expressed in grams of solute dissolved per
milli-litre of solvent (water). Typically is stated as a D indicating the sodium D-lines at

589.3 nm. The value of [ ] is dependent on wavelength. This known as rotatory dispersion

and can be verified by plotting [ ] versus 1 2 , which should give a straight line graph of
the form:

[ ] = A + B / 2 .
You are provided with two (1 molar) sugar solutions, X and Y, one of which is glucose
(dextrose) (C6H12O6) (180.16 g/mol) and the other is fructose (levulose) (C6H12O6). Glucose
(grape sugar) is found in ripe fruits, nectar, leaves, saps and blood. Glucose is one of the
main products of photosynthesis and fuels cellular respiration. Fructose (fruit sugar) is found
in honey, tree and vine fruits, flowers, berries, and most root vegetables. Sucrose
(C12H22O11) is our common table sugar and is found in sugar cane and sugar beet.
You are supplied with 3 colour filters that have the pass bands shown below.

Figure 12.4. Transmission curves for the colour filters.

For both solutions determine the specific rotatory power as follows.

1. Place the tank with the solution on the holder midway between both polarisers. To avoid
reflection of light from the end surfaces of the tank, it is best to place it at a small angle wrt.
the optical bench. Replace the photodetector with the white metal screen. Turn on the lamp,
and observe the top and bottom halves of the cylindrical spot on the screen due to the light
passing through the tank.
2. Rotate the second polariser and note down the angle at which maximum extinction of light
occurs in the top half circle (this should be near 90). Notice that light travelling through the
sugar solution is able to pass through the second polariser, because the bottom half circle is
still visible on the screen. This is due to the rotation of the plane of polarisation by the sugar
molecules in the solution in the bottom half of the tank.
3. The rotation of the plane of polarisation by the sugar molecules is wavelength dependent.
You can verify this by using the colour filters which can be mounted in front of the light
source. Place each of the filters in front of the light source in turn, and measure the angle
() at which maximum extinction occurs of the bottom half circle. Obtain the difference
with the angle at which maximum extinction occurs of the top half circle.

Figure 12.5. Set-up for measuring the optical rotation of sugar.

4. Complete the table below:

Filter

Pass
band (nm)

Centre
wavelength
(nm)

Blue

400 - 500

450

Green

500 - 570

535

Red

600 - 700

650

Angle 1 for
extinction of
top half
circle (deg.)

Angle 2 for
extinction of
bottom half
circle (deg.)

Difference
angle
= (1 2)
(deg.)

Specific
rotatory power
(deg. dm

[ ]

cm g1)
3

5. Determine the specific rotation value for each of the sugar solutions X and Y and state
whether they exhibit dextro- or laevo-rotation.
6. Verify Cauchys relationship [ ] = A + B / 2 for rotatory dispersion and calculate values
of A and B for both solutions.