Simple direct observation of polarization changes of Rayleigh scattering on sugar solution at low concentration

Abstract

Commonly, light scattering is observed and measured by its scattered light intensity. In this research, we use direct polarization changes in sugar solution using Rayleigh scattering to observe the dependence of polarization changes of scattered light on incident polarized light angle and sample concentration. Commercial sugar and pure sucrose diluted in aqueous solution were used as samples with concentrations in the range 0.01 g/ml – 0.1 g/ml, and were assumed to be homogeneous and having identical molecular size. Green pointer laser having wavelength of 532 nm was used which its polarization changes was measured by analyser. The result shows that the polarization changes of scattered light is linearly dependent both on polarizer angle of the incident light and the sample concentration (number of particles) showing polarization changes in commercial sugar solution greater than in sucrose solution. This indicates quality differences of the samples due to molecular size differences and additional impurities in the commercial sugar. The direct polarization changes measurement is able to show relative different of sugar quality, i.e. pure sucrose and commercial sugar and can further be developed as a simple measurement method in finding information of molecular size and number of particles.