4

I was wondering (since I've looked pretty hard and haven't been able to find anything)- are there any models that explain the polarization of light upon reflection? Everywhere I've looked I've seen things like the Brewster angle mentioned, and empirical data, but I haven't yet found any theoretical models that explain this type of polarization. Can anybody point me in the right direction? Or have no such models been made?

Physics Llama
  • 1,593
  • 13
  • 24

1 Answers1

5

You may wish to look at the Fresnel formulas (see "Fresnel Equations" Wiki page), which are derived from the Maxwell equations.

Selene Routley
  • 88,112
akhmeteli
  • 26,888
  • 2
  • 27
  • 65
  • 3
    Well, when Fresnel first derived them, Maxwell wasn't even born. – Ruslan Apr 13 '15 at 05:22
  • @Ruslan: I wrote "are derived", not "were derived":-), as OP asked about "theoretical models". – akhmeteli Apr 13 '15 at 11:32
  • Yeah, this was partly a joke. I was thinking that Fresnel must have had some phenomenological wave model to derive his equations from. If you know what it was, it'd be a useful addition to your answer. – Ruslan Apr 13 '15 at 12:12
  • @Ruslan Partly a joke but still a very interesting point historically - I'd never noticed this seemingly obvious point before as, like Akhmeteli, I learnt the Fresnel equations as being derived from ME (from Born and Wolf, in my case). A good question for Science and Math History SE, perhaps. – Selene Routley Apr 13 '15 at 12:51
  • Thanks! And, I don't know if this merits another question or not on the site: qualitatively, how is this phenomenon explained? – Physics Llama Apr 14 '15 at 02:09
  • @PhysicsLlama - see this answer for a qualitative explanation. – Floris Feb 04 '16 at 12:47