Chapter 23 Electromagnetic Waves Lecture 14

23.1 The Discovery of Electromagnetic Waves 23.2 Properties of Electromagnetic Waves 23.3 Electromagnetic Waves Carry Energy and Momentum 23.4 Types of Electromagnetic Radiation: The Electromagnetic Spectrum 23.5 Generation and Propagation of Electromagnetic Wave 23.6 Polarization 23.7 Doppler Effect

Generation of EM Waves AC Source with Antennas

A radio wave can be generated by using an AC voltage source connected to two wires

The two wires act as an antenna

At any particular

moment, the two wires are oppositely charged

Section 23.5

Generation of EM Waves
As the voltage of the AC

source oscillates, the electric potential of the two wires also oscillate Electric charges are also flowing onto and off the wires as the voltage alternates

Section 23.5

Generation of EM Waves, cont.

The electric field

continues to oscillate in size and direction The wave propagates away from the antenna The charges are accelerated The charges undergo simple harmonic motion with a given frequency which is also the frequency of the AC voltage source and the frequency of the wave

Section 23.5

Generation of EM Waves, cont.

Antennas EM Wave Propagation

At any particular

moment, the two wires are oppositely charged The waves propagate perpendicular to the antennas axis

Section 23.5

Antennas, cont.
Electromagnetic waves also propagate inside the

antenna wires
For a very long antenna, these tend to cancel
Therefore, most dipole antennas have a total length of

/4

More complicated antennas also have the same

cancellation effect, so the length of the antenna is usually comparable to the wavelength of the radiation

Antenna to Detect Radiation

The same antenna that

generates an em wave can also be used to detect the wave The electric field associated with the wave exerts a force on the electrons in the antenna This produces a current and an induced voltage across the antenna wires This is the voltage source of the circuit in the receiver

Section 23.5

Point Source and Spherical Wave

There are cases where the charges are not confined

to one direction In these cases, the radiation can propagate outward in all directions The ideal case of a very small source producing spherical wave fronts is called a point source

The intensity of a spherical wave decreases with distance: I 1/r2

The intensity decreases as the constant amount of energy spreads out over greater areas
Section 23.5

Polarization
There are many directions of the

electric field of an em wave that are perpendicular to the direction of propagation Knowing the actual direction of the electric field is important to determining how the wave interacts with matter The previous wave (from the dipole antenna) was linearly polarized
The electric field was directed

parallel to the z-axis

Most light is unpolarized

Section 23.6

Polarizers
Polarized light can be

created using a polarizer The type of polarizer shown consists of a thin, plastic film that allows an em wave to pass through it only if the electric field of the wave is parallel to a particular direction called the axis of the polarizer

Section 23.6

Polarizers, cont.
The polarizer absorbs radiation with electric fields

that are not along the axis When the unpolarized light strikes a polarizer, the light that come out is linearly polarized Assume linearly polarized light strikes a polarizer
If the incident light is polarized parallel to the axis of

the polarizer and the outgoing electric field is equal in amplitude to the incoming field All the incident energy is transmitted through the polarizer

Section 23.6

Polarizers, final
If the incident light is

polarized perpendicular to the axis of the polarizer, no light is transmitted If the incident light is polarized at an angle relative to the axis of the polarizer, only a component of electric field is transmitted

Eout Ein cos

Polarizers and Malus Law

If the electric field is parallel to the polarizers axis: Eout = Ein

If the electric field is perpendicular to the polarizers axis, Eout = 0

If the electric field makes some angle relative to the polarizers axis, Eout = Ein cos This relationship can be expressed in terms of intensity and is then called Malus Law:

Iout = Iin cos2

Section 23.6

Malus Law and Unpolarized Light

Unpolarized light can be thought of as a collection of many separate light waves, each

linearly polarized in different and random directions Each separate wave is transmitted through the polarizer according to Malus Law The average outgoing intensity is the average of all the incident waves: Iout = (Iin cos2 )ave = Iin Since the average value of the cos2 is
Section 23.6

Polarization Examples

In figure A, the unpolarized light passes through

polarizers oriented at 90
The intensity is reduced to by the first polarizer and to 0

by the second

In figure B, three polarizers are used and a non-zero

intensity results
Section 23.6

Polarizers, Summary
When analyzing light as it passes through several polarizers in succession, always analyze

the effect of one polarizer at a time The light transmitted by a polarizer is always linearly polarized The polarization direction is determined solely by the polarizer axis The transmitted wave has no memory of its original polarization

Section 23.6

Operation of a Polarizer
Most applications use a

sandwich structure with certain types of long molecules placed between thin sheets of plastic When the molecules are aligned parallel to each other, the sheets act as a polarizer with the axis perpendicular to the direction of the molecules

Section 23.6

Operation, cont.
Electrons in the polarizer molecules respond to

electric fields When the electric field is parallel to the molecules light is absorbed When the electric field is perpendicular to the molecular direction the light is transmitted The polarization axis is always perpendicular to the molecular direction

Section 23.6

Polarization by Reflection

Light can be polarized by scattering Air molecules act as antennas Charged particles respond to sunlight by oscillating in the

direction of the electric field These particles produce new outgoing waves that are polarized The outgoing waves are called scattered waves The light is said to be polarized by reflection

Section 23.6

Optical Activity
When linearly polarized

light passes through certain materials, the polarization direction is rotated This effect is called optical activity These materials generally contain molecules with a screwlike or helical structure
Section 23.6

Applications of Polarized Light

Many objects use LCDs Liquid Crystal Displays Incident light is linearly polarized by a polarizing

sheet The light encounters an optically active material Section 23.6 called a liquid crystal

LCDs, cont.
The molecules in the liquid crystal rotate the light by

90so that it can pass through an output polarizer Voltages can be applied to rotate the light with respect to the output polarizer and thus make the display appear dark By applying different voltages to different areas of the liquid crystal, a pattern of light and dark regions can be formed
Corresponding to letters and numbers you see in the

display

Section 23.6

Spectral Lines

Astronomers use spectral lines to determine properties of

stars Each dark line in the spectrum corresponds to a color absorbed by the atoms in the object The location of each line corresponds to a particular wavelength of light Some spectra are observed to be shifted Section 23.7

Red Shifts
Observations by Edwin Hubble showed that distant

galaxies were shifted to longer wavelengths relative to the wavelength of the same spectral line on Earth
This is called a red shift

Hubble proposed that those galaxies must be

moving away from us This would cause the frequency to appear lower
This is similar to the Doppler Effect seen for sound

The size of the frequency shift can be used to

determine the velocity of the galaxy emitting the light

Section 23.7

Expanding Universe
Most galaxies in the

observable universe were found to be moving away from us The farther the galaxy is from the Earth, the faster it is receding From any viewpoint, the galaxies would appear to be moving away from you
Section 23.7

Doppler Shift for Light

The Doppler Shift relationships for light are different

than for sound For light, the frequency is shifted as:

obs source v rel 1 c v 1 rel c

vrel is the velocity of the source relative to the observer

A positive value of vrel corresponds to a source moving

away from the observer

Section 23.7

Demo Polarizer Effects