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Am I reading right that there's a direct interaction between magnetism and optical polarization? I know that light polarization is a pretty wacky topic to start
by Doxin 4y ago
Am I reading right that there's a direct interaction between magnetism and optical polarization? I know that light polarization is a pretty wacky topic to start with, but having magnets in the mix makes it seem unlikely amounts of wacky to me!
Anyone got any reading on the topic?
- extropy 4y agoThat sounds very wrong. Not a physicist, but light does not interact with magnets, or you need to get into the superconducting strength levels before it does. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_rotation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_rotation It seems the optical rotation happens due to molecular structure of specific materials. Edit, found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_effect So a specific material plus magnetic field is needed. But still not sure how strong of a field is sufficient.
- tomn 4y agoFor more details on this specific application these pages might be more relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_isolator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_isolator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_rotator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_rotator
- ycui1986 4y agoMagnet there is probably used as an isolator. The laser can only go out,but not come back.( yes, there will be laser coming back from reflection, which also interrupt the operation of the source laser.
- matthberg 4y agoYep, the Faraday Effect! The sibling comment has a link to the Wikipedia page, yet for a quick video explanation and demonstration Applied Science's video on the Faraday Effect was fantastic. It demonstrates it, explains some use cases, and also goes into how the material the light is passing through affects the strength of the magnetic induced rotation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhU-nNiAgtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhU-nNiAgtI
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]