Electromagnetic and Polarization Effects

Abstract

Under this heading we discuss electromagnetic theory of light, polarization, birefringence, harmonic generation, electro- and acoustooptics, and related topics. Light consists of time-varying electric and magnetic fields. These fields are vectors, and their directions are almost always perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the light. When the electric field vector E of a light wave lies in one plane only, the light is said to be plane polarized. The magnetic field vector H is then perpendicular to both the direction of propagation and the electric field vector, as shown in Fig. 8.1. Because the fields propagate together and maintain a constant 90° phase difference with one another, it is usually sufficient to describe the wave with either the electric vector or the magnetic vector. It is conventional to choose the electric vector, largely because the interaction of matter with the electric field is stronger than that with the magnetic field. Therefore, the wave shown in Fig. 8.1 is plane polarized because the electric-field vector lies in a plane. Unfortunately, in classical optics, the plane of polarization is defined perpendicular to the electric-field vector. We shall use electric-field vector throughout.KeywordsOptic AxisElectric VectorPockels CellIncident Electric FieldFrustrate Total Internal ReflectionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.