We have developed an advanced undergraduate experiment to explore electric dipole radiation in the optical frequency domain. A polarized laser beam is used to illuminate an aqueous suspension of skim milk, and the light scattered from the suspension is measured in the plane perpendicular to the laser beam as a function of the angle with respect to the polarization direction and as a function of the perpendicular distance R from the laser beam. When the length of the scattering region, d, is much smaller than R, the measurements agree very well with the sin 2 /R 2 dependence of electric dipole radiation. Increasing the scatterer concentration increases the background of multiply scattered light and decreases the degree of polarization of the scattered light with no appreciable change in the observed sin 2 /R 2 dependence. We discuss variations of the experiment for different instructional needs and describe how an understanding of dipole radiation helps students to appreciate a number of optical phenomena.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.