Lecture 2: Birefringent materials

Questions addressed:
Phenomena of double reflection
Birefringent material
Change in polarization by birefringent material

1. Phenomena of double refraction

In previous lectures, so far we studied the cases where the propagation of light
through a dielectric medium is independent of its state of polarization and direction of
propagation. That means that a randomly polarized light or two mutually orthogonal
polarized lights will see the same refractive index in all the direction while
propagating through the medium. Recalling the Huygen’s principle, one can say that
if there is a point source of light inside the medium, it will emit a spherical wave
front, as shown in Fig 1a, irrespective of the state of polarization. Such materials are
called as isotropic medium.

Fig 1 Spherical wave front in isotropic material (animated)

Ordinary glass is a good example of isotropic material. There are certain material for
which the refractive index is different in different direction or we can say simply that
the speed of propagation will not be same in all direction and also it may depend on
the state of polarization. In such materials a point source may result into the elliptical
wave warfront or for different polarization the wave front will be different, as shown
in fig 1(b). Such materials are called as anisotropic material. Crystals like Quartz
(SiO2), calcite (CaCo3) and KDP (potassium dihydrogen phosphate, KH 2PO4) are
good example of anisotropic material. Such anisotropy is due to difference in the
arrangement of the atoms and molecules in different direction in the crystal which
leads to direction dependent polarization property of the system. Recall that refractive
index n is given by (module 13, lecture 1, eq 1.7)
 em
n=
e o mo
Which depends on permitivity or polarization property of the medium. The polarizibility
r r
of a medium is given by P = e E , for isotropic medium,
Px = e E x ,
Py = e E y and
Pz = e Ez implying that permitivity is independent of the direction. For anisotropic
medium, in the simplest possible case,
Px = e x E x ,
Py = e y E y and
Pz = e z Ez .
From this, one can say that the refractive indicies are different in different directions for
anisotropic crystals and hence the speed of propagation of light in such crystals will
depend on the direction of propagation and the polarization of light. These crystals are
called as birefringent crystals or doubly refracting medium.

When an unpolarized light (which is equivalent to the two orthogonally polarized light)
falls on such crystals, different polarization will propagate through the crystal with
different speed and it will result into elliptical wave front as shown in Fig 2.

Fig 2 Elliptical wave front in anisotropic material(animated)

In general a crystal may exhibit three principal refrective indixcies corresponding to three
mutually orthogonal axis. In some of the crystals, there may be one particular axis, say z
axis such that if the light is propagating along this axis then the two mutually orthogonal
waves may be same. Such axis is called as the optics axis and the crystal is termed as
uniaxial crystal. In a uniaxial crystal, the propagation of light along the optics axis or
along the z axis is independent of the state of polarization, just like the isotropic system.
The refractive index in such situation is denoted as n o. In case if the light is traveling
along x (or y) direction, other than optics axis then the refractive indices will be different
for two mutually orthogonal polarization. The light polarized along y direction (or x) will
have refractive index no and that of along z direction it is denoted by n e accordingly the
waves are called as ordinary and extraordinary rays.. Suffix e denotes the extraordinary
behaviour. In other words, one can say the uniaxial crystals offers two refractive indices
no and ne and hence ar birefringent material.

2. Propagation of light through birefringent crystal:

Let us consider a uniaxial crystal placed in air. As discussed in the previous module, the
radiation falling at an interface may be resolved in two kinds of polarization, viz: in
plane polarization and perpendicular polarization. To make the discussion simple, we will
consider the normal incidence only.

Case I. Let us consider the first case when the optics axis is perpendicular to the interface
formed by the uniaxial crystal and the air as shown in Fig 2. In this case, the refractive
indicies for both polarization is same and is given by no. Both the s and p waves will
travel with the same speed. One can show the wave front by drawing a circile of radius
c/no with the center at the interface at point O, where the radiation is hitting the interface
as shown in fig. The wave front will be spherical corresponding to both the components, .
The situation will be similar to that of isotropic medium.

Fig 3. Propagation of wave in uniaxial crystal when the optics axis is oriented along
the direction of propagation (to be drawn)

Case II. In the second case, the optics axis is parallel to the interface as shown in Fig 4.

For the s wave (having polarization perpendicular to the plane of incidence or  to the
plane of the paper) the refractive index is no (and hence termed as ordinary wave) and the
wave front will be spherical wave front as shown in fig 4. But for p wave the refractive
index is ne (or it can be termed as extraordinary wave)and the wave front will be elliptical
wave front. It can be drawn by plotting an ellipse with the major axis as c/n e along the
direction of propagation and the minor axis as c/n o along the optics axis. In this case, s
and p wave will develop a relative phase difference while propagating the same length
(physical ) in the crystal owing to different refractive indices.
Fig 4. Prpoagation of plane wave in uniaxial crystal when optics axis is oriented parallel
to the plane of the paper and perpendicular to the direcytion of propagation.

Case III. In this case the optics axis is perpendicular to the plane of the page. Optics axis
is still parallel to the interface as in the case II. So in this case only difference is that s
polarization is will see a refractive index ne and it will extraordinary wave and p
polarization will observe refractive index no and will be ordinary ray as shown in fig 5.

Fig 5. Propagation of plane wave in uniaxial crystal when optics axis is oriented
perpendicular to the plane of paper as well as perpendicular to the direction of
propagation..

Case IV In this final case let us consider the optics axis to be in the plane of incidence
but is along the direction as shown by the broken lines in fig 6. let us consider a plane
wave AB incident normally on such interface. The s wave will propagate normal with
the refractive index no and the wave front corresponding to this polarization will
remain un deviated inside the crystal as shown by OO. This is the ordinary ray But
for the in plane p wave the wav front is elliptical as shown in the fig 6. This wave
front can be obtained by plotting an ellipse having center at C or D with major axis 
to the optics axis having magnitude c/ ne and the minor axis as c/n o. It is obvious from
this Hugenn’s construction that the p wave will under go a deviation and
corresponding wave front is denoted by EE . Hence under such case the two waves
will split into two components even under normal incidence, one of them following
the undeviated path termed as ordinary wave and the other under going deviation is
termed as extraordinary ray.
Fig 6 Propagation of plane wave in uniaxial crystal when optics axis is in the plane of
incidence but oriented at certain angle with respect to the interface.

Next lecture will demonstrate how to use such properties of uniaxial crystal to generate
the wave of required polarization froma plane polarized light.