Polarization Of Light And Verification Of Malus Law
Polarization Of Light And Verification Of Malus Law
Principle and Working :
When a light beam passes through a polarizer filter, it gets linearly polarized. When this linearly polarized light passes through analyzer, its intensity depends on the angular position of the analyzer. The maximum light intensity is transmitted when the optical axis of polarizer and analyzer coincide. The intensity of transmitted beam depends on the angular position between the optical axis of the polarizer and analyzer (?) and is defined by Malus law as I=I0 cos2? where I0 is the intensity of incident light.
Further the intensity of light depends on the distance between the source and the detector and is defined by the inverse square law.
He-Ne laser
Optical bench, 1.5m
Connecting leads pair 1m
Digital multimeter
Polarizer / Analyzer
Transverse saddle
Photo detector
Flexible plug lead red
Flexible plug lead black
Scope of Learning
1 To measure the light intensity of plane polarized light as a function of the analyzer position.
2 To verify Malus law.
3 To verify inverse square law.
