Brewster’s Angle

• Brewster’s angle is the angle at which the reflected light is linearly polarized normal to the plane incidence

• At the end of the plasma tube, light can leave through a particular angle (Brewster’s angle) and essentially be highly polarized

• Maximum polarization occurs when the angle between reflected and transmitted light is 90o

  thus Ør + Øt = 90o
  
  since sin (90-x) = cos x
  Snell’s provides (sin Øi / cos Øi ) = n2/n1
  
  Ør is Brewster’s angle

Shapiro p 82

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Brewster’s Angle

This slide reviews Brewster’s angle. This is important because polarized lasers in flow cytometry function because of Brewster’s angle.