Polarization of light by reflection and the Brewster angle

Abstract

An experiment to determine the Brewster angle and to study polarization of reflected light is discussed in this paper. The equipment used is commercially available from PASCO Scientific. A light sensor, which detects the intensity of the reflected light, is connected to a computer through a Pasco Science Workshop 750 interface and the intensity is read directly from a digital meter in the Science Workshop program. Intensities of the reflected light polarized in the plane of incidence and perpendicular to the plane were obtained as a function of the angle of incidence. The results are consistent with Fresnel’s laws of reflection. In addition, the refractive index calculated from the Brewster angle agrees with the accepted value for the dielectric reflector used in the experiment.