You may also have noted how the Sun appears to change color when it sets. As the Sun’s disk descends toward the horizon, its light must
pass through a greater and greater thickness of atmosphere in order to reach you. Since a certain amount of sunlight is scattered aside for
each kilometer of atmosphere it passes through, its position at sunset causes it to lose large amounts of light at the blue end and even toward
the middle of the visible light spectrum. At sunset, practically all the shorter wavelengths of light have been scattered out of it, leaving only light
at the red end of the spectrum to be viewed by you. The “missing” blue light is not really missing. People to the west of you perceive it as the
daytime sky.
Scattering also explains why skylight is partially polarized. When the Sun is low in the sky, as depicted in Concept 1, horizontally polarized light
that gets scattered down from the overhead sky is polarized in the plane of the downgoing wave you see in the illustration. Incoming sunlight
that is polarized in other planes also gets scattered, but not straight down towards the ground.
You can experiment with skylight polarization yourself if you have a pair of polarizing sunglasses. In the early morning or late afternoon hold
your glasses against the northern or southern sky at arm’s length. Turn one of the lenses slowly, recalling that its transmission axis is vertical
when the sunglasses are worn normally. You will find that the skylight is partially polarized in a plane perpendicular to the direction to the Sun.
Sunset
Longer wavelengths also scattered
Sun appears red30.10 - Physics at work: liquid crystal displays (LCDs)
Substances that change the direction of polarization
of light passing through them are called optically
active. In other words, an optically active substance
rotates the plane of polarization of light passing
through it.
The liquid crystal display (LCD) in the watch face
above demonstrates variable optical activity at work.
LCDs are found in many common devices, including
calculators, cellular telephones and clocks. There are
two types of LCDs: backlit and reflective. The one
shown above is a reflective LCD, but we will explore
both types in this section. Backlit LCDs generate light
behind their displays; reflective LCDs like the one
above utilize ambient light.
LCDs rely on polarization. The characters of a digital watch display consist of “digit”
segments: regions that can be made dark. These segments are filled with a substance
called liquid crystal that is optically active in its natural state but becomes inactive when
a potential difference is applied across it. You see this phenomenon illustrated for a
backlit LCD in Concepts 1 and 2. In Concept 1, the power is off (there is no potential
difference across the crystal), so the crystal is optically active and rotates the plane of
polarization of the light. The thickness of the crystal is designed to rotate the light by
90°. In Concept 2 a potential difference is applied, the crystal becomes inactive, and
there is no rotation of the light’s plane of polarization.
The liquid crystal is sandwiched between two polarizing filters with perpendicular
tranmission axes, as shown in Concept 3. In the backlit LCD shown there, a light behind
the display shines through the left-hand filter. Following our usual practice we will call
this filter that is closer to the light source the polarizer, and the one farther away the
analyzer. The polarizer allows light with a particular plane of polarization to pass
through. When the liquid crystal is “on” (optically inactive), it does not rotate the
polarized light, and the analyzer prevents any of the light from passing through, creating a dark area.
When no potential difference is applied across the liquid crystal, it is “off” and reverts to its normal optically active state. The perpendicular
orientation of the analyzer now allows the polarized light to pass through. Instead of being black, the material of the segment looks the same as
the adjoining material. In order to make the transmitted light difficult to see, the display’s background is colored to resemble it. This is shown in
Concept 4.
If you examine the watch in the illustration above or one on your wrist, or a friend’s wrist, you will see that the digits it displays are pieced
together from segments that appear black when they are “turned on.” When they are off, these segments are invisible to the casual glance, but
they can still be made out as faint shadows if you look very carefully.
We have been describing a typical backlit LCD, which can be read in the dark. The backlighting consumes more power than any other part of
This digital watch displays the time with a reflective LCD.Power OFF
Liquid crystal is optically ACTIVE
Rotates polarized light 90°