Re: p- and s-polarization question

Thank you both for the tips.



Bill I must admit that I only understood what you've tryed to describe
after having seen the figure at the site that Juha reported.

http://www.uta.edu/optics/research/ellipsometry/ellipsometry.htm

>Fig. 2 Schematic of the geometry of an ellipsometry experiment.

>The coordinate system used to describe the ellipse of polarization is
the p-s >coordinate system.  The s-direction is taken to be
perpendicular to the >direction of propagation and parallel to the
sample surface. The p-direction >is taken to be perpendicular to the
direction of propagation and contained in >the plane of incidence.

So in order to make things easier for me ;-) lets simulate my case.

I've conducted a polarized IR-transission experiment using a thin
film.

Try to imagine how fig 2 would be if theta was equal to zero 

s and p would lie on the surface of the sample and would have
north-south and east-west ?true?

So you wanna say that whenever I see a polar diagram of p- or -
polarization at various angles concerning a thin film ir-trasmission
exp. the different angles refer to theta(fig2) as a tilt angle.

I guess that at theta =0 -or at whatever theta- in order to have s- or
p- light I just turn the polarizer 90 degres.


If I'm not true please tip me on how can i get p- or s- polarized
light (using a polarizer).

Maybe my first message was toooo bad formed but the above was what I
was trying to state. In the film that I've used I have oriented
dipoles and believing that there was only one p- or s- state I kept
wondering "how can I find polar diagrams of them"?????????

It's now more than obvious that the p-polarized (and s-)modes are
infinite as the values that theta angle can have.


thanks for everything, 
greetings spiros