Re: polarizing microscope for the refractive index calculation

in article [EMAIL PROTECTED], tzavalas at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote on 12/2/03 6:27 AM:

> imagine a molecule which looks like a tube, meaning that it is much
> longer in one in comparison to the other 2,ok?
> 
> now for some reasons these molecules tend to lay one next to the other
> in such a way that they share mainly a (lets say) south-north.
> 
> In such a case when polirized light hits our sample in diferent
> directions the refraction index will be diferent.

Again, terms like vertical imply some kind of reference wrt our gravity.
Terms ordinary and extraordinary are more appropriate to materials with one
axis of symmetry. In this case, the optical axis is along the long direction
of the molecule. Light propogating in this direction will be ordinary. Light
in a different direction will have one polarization state that is ordinary
and one that is extraordinary. The extraordinary index is dependent upon
that direction while the ordinary index is not.

Sorry about this complicated argot. But as Feynman has suggested many times,
you need to learn it if you wish to communicate with others.

Bill