EIU Department of Physics

Polar Optics

Polarization of light plays an important role in many real world applications.  Polaroid sunglasses are a direct application of polarization optics.  Liquid crystal displays also utilize polarized light.  Polarized light can be used in communications systems and also some medical imaging devices.  This group is interested in the quality of the polarized light from different polarization techniques.  Precision liquid crystal behavior is also of interest.  The experimental program is designed to measure polarization quality as a function of angle of incidence.