FRESNEL EQUATIONS FOR PERPENDICULAR

POLARIZATION

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References: Griffiths, David J. (2007), Introduction to Electrodynamics,
3rd Edition; Pearson Education - Problem 9.16.
Post date: 7 Sep 2014.
Continuing our study of electromagnetic waves incident on a surface at an
oblique angle we’ll now use the boundary conditions to derive the reflection
and transmission coefficients. The boundary conditions are

1 E1⊥ − 2 E2⊥ = 0 (1)

B1⊥ − B2⊥ = 0 (2)
k k
E1 − E2 = 0 (3)
1 k 1 k
B − B = 0 (4)
µ1 1 µ2 2

where the subscript 1 refers to fields in medium 1 (z < 0) and 2 refers to

medium 2 (z > 0). That is

E1 = EI + ER (5)
E2 = ET (6)

and similarly for B. As we saw last time, the space-time dependence cancels
out of the boundary conditions, we can replace all fields by their (complex)
amplitudes so we get

 
1 Ẽ0⊥I + Ẽ0⊥R = 2 Ẽ0⊥T (7)
B̃0⊥I + B̃0⊥R = B̃0⊥T (8)
k k k
Ẽ0I + Ẽ0R = Ẽ0T (9)
1 
k k
 1 k
B̃0I + B̃0R = B̃ (10)
µ1 µ2 0T
1
 FRESNEL EQUATIONS FOR PERPENDICULAR POLARIZATION 2

There are actually two cases to consider: polarization parallel to the inci-
dent plane (that is, E in the xz plane in our example) or perpendicular to the
incident plane (so E is polarized along the y axis). Griffiths does the parallel
case in his section 9.3.3 so we’ll look at the perpendicular case here. (It’s
important to be clear about what is perpendicular or parallel to what. In the
four boundary conditions above, the ⊥ and k symbols mean perpendicular
and parallel to the boundary (that is, the xy plane) not the incident plane.
The polarization we’re considering is perpendicular to the incident plane.)
The incident wave travels along wave vector kI at an angle of θI to the
normal to the xy plane, the reflected wave travels along kR also at an an-
gle of θI , and the transmitted wave travels along kT at angle θT such that,
according to Snell’s law

sin θI n2
= (11)
sin θT n1
Condition 7 tells us nothing since E is in the y direction, so has no com-
ponent perpendicular to the xy plane. To use the other conditions, we need
to work out the components of E and B. We know E is in the y direction
so that’s easy. The direction of B is given by k × E. Consider BI . Here kI
points towards the xy plane (from the left) at an angle θI to the normal to
this plane. The cross product k × E therefore lies in the xz plane and points
to the lower right at an angle π2 − θI to the normal, so the components of BI
are (to keep the notation simple in what follows we’ll drop the 0 subscript
and tilde for the amplitudes):

π  1
BIz = BI cos − θI = EI sin θI (12)
2 v1
π  1
BIx = −BI sin − θI = − EI cos θI (13)
2 v1

BIx is negative since BI points towards negative x and positive z.

Assuming the reflected wave still has polarization in the +y direction,
the direction of BR is now kR × ER and kR points away (towards the left)
from the xy plane at angle θR = θI so BR points to the upper right and has
components

π 1 
BRz = BR cos − θI = ER sin θI (14)
2 v1
π  1
BRx = BR sin − θI = ER cos θI (15)
2 v1
 FRESNEL EQUATIONS FOR PERPENDICULAR POLARIZATION 3

Finally, the transmitted wave has direction kT which points away (to-
wards the right) from the xy plane, so BT = v12 kT × ET points to the lower
right and has components

π 1

BTz = BT cos − θT = ET sin θT (16)
2 v2
π  1
BTx = −BT sin − θT = − ET cos θT (17)
2 v2

We’re now ready to apply the boundary conditions. First, we use 8, which
applies to the z components of B so we have

1 1 1
EI sin θI + ER sin θI = ET sin θT (18)
v1 v1 v2
v1 sin θT
EI + ER = ET (19)
v2 sin θI
n1 v1
= ET (20)
n2 v2
= ET (21)

Condition 9 just gives us the same relation, so we don’t learn anything

new from it. Condition 10 applies to Bx only since B has no y component.

 
1 1 1 1
− EI cos θI + ER cos θI = − ET cos θT (22)
µ1 v1 v1 µ2 v 2
µ1 v 1 cos θT
EI − ER = ET (23)
µ2 v 2 cos θI
= αβET (24)

where

cos θT
α ≡ (25)
cos θI
µ1 v1 µ1 n2
β ≡ = (26)
µ2 v2 µ2 n1

Solving these two equations gives

 FRESNEL EQUATIONS FOR PERPENDICULAR POLARIZATION 4

1 − αβ
ER = EI (27)
1 + αβ
2
ET = EI (28)
1 + αβ
These are Fresnel’s equations for perpendicular polarization. For normal
incidence, θI = θT = 0, α = 1 and they reduce to the equations we got in
that case. Plots of ER /EI (red) and ET /EI (blue) for n2 /n1 = 1.5 are as
shown:

The negative values for ER /EI indicate that the reflected wave is π out
of phase with the incident wave. For θI = 0 (normal incidence) 80% of the
amplitude is transmitted, dropping to zero when θI = π/2 (incident wave is
parallel to the surface).
The Fresnel equations for parallel polarization (see Griffiths) turn out to
be

α−β
ER = EI (29)
α+β
2
ET = EI (30)
α+β
 FRESNEL EQUATIONS FOR PERPENDICULAR POLARIZATION 5

We can see that if α = β, ER = 0 and there is no reflected wave. This

occurs at Brewster’s angle θB , given by

1 − β2
sin2 θB = (31)
(n1 /n2 )2 − β 2
For perpendicular polarization, there is no reflection if we can find an
angle θB such that α = 1/β.

1 − sin2 θT
α2 = (32)
1 − sin2 θI
1 − (n1 /n2 )2 sin2 θI
= (33)
1 − sin2 θI
1
= (34)
β2
1 − 1/β 2
sin2 θB = (35)
(n1 /n2 )2 − 1/β 2
β2 − 1
= (36)
β 2 (n1 /n2 )2 − 1
In practice, the permeabilities of media are approximately equal, so that
µ1 ≈ µ2 and β ≈ n2 /n1 from 26. In this case, the expression for sin2 θB
blows up so there is no solution, and thus no Brewster angle for perpen-
dicular polarization (unless β = 1 which occurs only if n1 = n2 so there is
effectively no boundary).
The reflection and transmission coefficients are

1 2
2 1 v1 ER
R = 1 2
(37)
2 1 v1 EI
2
(1 − αβ)
= (38)
(1 + αβ)2
1 2
2 2 v2 ET
T = 1 2
(39)
2 1 v1 EI
4αβ
= (40)
(1 + αβ)2

and it can be seen that R + T = 1.

 FRESNEL EQUATIONS FOR PERPENDICULAR POLARIZATION 6

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