Brewster’s Angle Accessory - OS-8170
Measure the intensity of reflected light and determine Brewster’s Angle. An accessory for the Educational Spectrophotometer System.
Product Summary
When light reflects off a nonconducting material, the reflected light is partially polarized. The amount of polarization depends on the incident angle and the index of refraction of the reflecting material. The incident angle that gives maximum polarization is called Brewster’s Angle.
Light from a diode laser (wavelength = 650 nm) is reflected off the flat side of an acrylic semicircular lens. The reflected light passes through a polarizer and is detected by a Light Sensor. The angle of incidence is measured by a Rotary Motion Sensor mounted on the spectrophotometer table. The intensity of the reflected polarized light vs. incident angle is graphed to determine the angle at which the light intensity is a minimum. This is Brewster’s Angle, which is used to calculate the index of refraction of acrylic.