A light whose electric field vectors are completely removed by using a good polaroid, allowed to incident on the surface of the prism at Brewster’s angle. Choose the most suitable option for the phenomenon related to the prism.
- Reflected and refracted rays will be perpendicular to each other.
- Wave will propagate along the surface of prism.
- No refraction, and there will be total reflection of light.
- No reflection, and there will be total transmission of light.
The Correct Option is D
Approach Solution - 1
The correct option is (D) : No reflection, and there will be total transmission of light.
When electric field vector is completely removed and incident on Brewster’s angle then only refraction takes place.
Approach Solution -2
(A) Reflected and refracted rays will be perpendicular to each other:
This is generally true from Brewster's angle. The reflected and refracted rays are perpendicular to each other due to the nature of polarization and refraction at this angle.
(B) Wave will propagate along the surface of the prism:
This is not what happens at Brewster's angle. The refracted wave enters the prism according to Snell's law, not propagating along the surface.
(C) No refraction, and there will be total reflection of light:
This contradicts Brewster's angle, where there is refraction and no reflection of the p-polarized component.
(D) No reflection and there will be total transmission of light:
This accurately describes Brewster's angle. For the p-polarized light incident at Brewster's angle, there is no reflection, and all the light is transmitted into the prism.
So, the correct option is (D): No reflection and there will be total transmission of light.
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Concepts Used:
Wave Optics
- Wave optics are also known as Physical optics which deal with the study of various phenomena such as polarization, interference, diffraction, and other occurrences where ray approximation of geometric optics cannot be done. Thus, the section of optics that deals with the behavior of light and its wave characteristics is known to be wave optics.
- In wave optics, the approximation is carried out by utilizing ray optics for the estimation of the field on a surface. Further, it includes integrating a ray-estimated field over a mirror, lens, or aperture for the calculation of the transmitted or scattered field.
- Wave optics stands as a witness to a famous standoff between two great scientific communities who devoted their lives to understanding the nature of light. Overall, one supports the particle nature of light; the other supports the wave nature.
- Sir Isaac Newton stood as a pre-eminent figure that supported the voice of particle nature of light, he proposed a corpuscular theory which states that “light consists of extremely light and tiny particles, called corpuscles which travel with very high speeds from the source of light to create a sensation of vision by reflecting on the retina of the eye”.