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French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.
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Augustin-Jean Fresnel
French optical physicist (1788–1827)
Augustin-Jean Fresnel was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, fully supplanting Newton's corpuscular theory, from the late 1830s until the end of the 19th century. He is perhaps better…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
French Academy of Sciences
French learned society
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Linear polarization
Electromagnetic radiation special case
In electrodynamics, linear polarization or plane polarization of electromagnetic radiation is a confinement of the electric field vector or magnetic field vector to a given plane along the direction of propagation. The term linear polarization was coined by Augustin-Jean Fresnel…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Circular polarization
Polarization state
In electrodynamics, circular polarization of an electromagnetic wave is a polarization state in which, at each point, the electromagnetic field of the wave has a constant magnitude and is rotating at a constant rate in a plane perpendicular to the direction of the wave.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Elliptical polarization
Polarization of electromagnetic radiation
In electrodynamics, elliptical polarization is the polarization of electromagnetic radiation such that the tip of the electric field vector describes an ellipse in any fixed plane intersecting, and normal to, the direction of propagation. An elliptically polarized wave may be…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Optical rotation
Rotation of the plane of linearly polarized light as it travels through a chiral material
Optical rotation, also known as polarization rotation or circular birefringence, is the rotation of the orientation of the plane of polarization about the optical axis of linearly polarized light as it travels through certain materials. Circular birefringence and circular…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Birefringence
Refractive property of materials
Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefringent or birefractive. The…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
December 9
Day of the year
December 9 is the 343rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 22 days remain until the end of the year.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)