The polarization is a property of waves that can oscillate with more than one orientation. Given this, when the light is reflected from a surface, does the reflection change the property/orientation of waves?
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1possible duplicate of Polarization of light upon reflection – John Rennie May 17 '15 at 13:36
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1Also Calculate the polarization vector on reflection or refraction from a dielectric interface, and probably other questions as well. – John Rennie May 17 '15 at 13:37
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Yes it does. Since the direction of the light beam changes with reflection also the direction of polarization. This is mostly because the observer is in a fixed coordinate system and the light beam changes its local coordinate system during reflection.
For an idealized reflector and an observer which moves along with the light beam, the direction of the E-field oscillation would stay the same.
For almost all real and hence non-ideal materials the reflectivity is different for the different polarization components (i.e. different absorption). This induces a true change of the polarization of light in addition to the changing coordinate system effect.
Andreas H.
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