Abstract
ON a former occasion I exhibited some phenomena depending upon circular, or, as it was then also called, successive Polarisation, and in particular I adopted and explained a method for producing circularly polarised light devised by Sir Charles Wheatstone. I propose on the present occasion to pursue the subject into some of its ulterior consequences. In terms of the wave theory, light is said to be circularly polarised when the vibrations are circular, as distinguished from plane polarisation, when they are rectilinear. And further, it is known from mechanical principles that a circular vibration may always be produced by the combination of two rectilinear vibrations, the amplitudes or extents of which are equal, and whereof one is in advance or in rear of the other by one or by any odd number of quarter-wave lengths. In the former of these cases the circular motion will take place in one direction, say right-handed, in the latter in the opposite, say left-handed. The contrivance used for producing circular polarisation this evening is known by the name of a “quarter undulation plate,” and consists of a plate of mica split to such a thickness that one of the two rays into which plane polarised light is divided on entering it is retarded by an odd number of quarter-wave lengths behind the other.
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On Optical Phenomena Produced by Crystals Submitted to Circularly Polarised Light*. Nature 6, 91–92 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/006091a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/006091a0