ABSTRACT
In Part I of this book, we dealt with the polarization of the optical field and the phenomenological interaction of polarized light with optical components, that is, polarizers, retarders, depolarizers, and rotators. All this was accomplished with only the classical theory of light. By the mid-nineteenth century, Fresnel’s theory of light was a complete triumph. The final acceptance of the wave theory took place when Stokes showed that the Fresnel-Arago interference laws could also be explained and understood on the basis of classical optics. Most importantly, Stokes showed that unpolarized light and partially polarized light were completely compatible with the wave theory of light. Thus, polarized light played an essential role in the acceptance of this theory. We shall now see how polarized light was again to play a crucial role in the acceptance of an entirely new theory of the optical field, Maxwell’s theory of the electrodynamic field.
