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What happens when two polarized lights of the same wavelength interfere at 90 degrees with each other?

Physics Asked by magnolia1 on January 29, 2021

am I right in assuming that if I cross two polarized lights of the same wavelength the result would be destructive interference?
I don’t mean 90 degrees as in ‘orthogonal polarization’, but the two light sources being at a 90 degree angle with each other. (perhaps this was obvious)
Thanks!

One Answer

Wether you get destructive interference or constructive will depend on the position. What you get is something like in the image. Where the diagonal lines indicate maxima where constructive interference occurs while between them there is destructive interference.

enter image description here

The interference pattern that appears in the intersection is most pronounced when both beams have the same polarization. For this figure I assumed the polarization was pointing into the screen. With an orthogonal polarization between the beams one could avoid having an interference pattern.

Answered by Asaf on January 29, 2021

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