Consider a beam of photons traveling along the z axis. The beam passes through a sequence of three ideal linear polarizers. The first polarizer has its polarization axis along the x axis. The second polarizer has its polarization axis along the x' axis, where x = cos D✗+ sin Dy. (Note that the x' axis is in the xy plane and makes an angle with the +x axis.) The third polarizer has its polarization axis along the y axis. (a) Of the photons that pass through the first polarizer, what fraction will make it through the last polarizer? (Show this result using Dirac notation; don't just use a result that you remember from introductory physics.) (b) If the middle polarizer is removed, what fraction of photons that make it through the first polarizer will get through the last polarizer? (c) Comment on how the results of this problem compare with those of the previous problem, where we looked at a seemingly similar situation for spin 1/2 particles.

Question
Consider a beam of photons traveling along the z axis. The beam
passes through a sequence of three ideal linear polarizers. The first polarizer has its
polarization axis along the x axis. The second polarizer has its polarization axis along
the x' axis, where x = cos D✗+ sin Dy. (Note that the x' axis is in the xy plane and
makes an angle with the +x axis.) The third polarizer has its polarization axis along
the y axis.
(a) Of the photons that pass through the first polarizer, what fraction will make it
through the last polarizer? (Show this result using Dirac notation; don't just use a result
that you remember from introductory physics.)
(b) If the middle polarizer is removed, what fraction of photons that make it through the
first polarizer will get through the last polarizer?
(c) Comment on how the results of this problem compare with those of the previous
problem, where we looked at a seemingly similar situation for spin 1/2 particles.
Transcribed Image Text:Consider a beam of photons traveling along the z axis. The beam passes through a sequence of three ideal linear polarizers. The first polarizer has its polarization axis along the x axis. The second polarizer has its polarization axis along the x' axis, where x = cos D✗+ sin Dy. (Note that the x' axis is in the xy plane and makes an angle with the +x axis.) The third polarizer has its polarization axis along the y axis. (a) Of the photons that pass through the first polarizer, what fraction will make it through the last polarizer? (Show this result using Dirac notation; don't just use a result that you remember from introductory physics.) (b) If the middle polarizer is removed, what fraction of photons that make it through the first polarizer will get through the last polarizer? (c) Comment on how the results of this problem compare with those of the previous problem, where we looked at a seemingly similar situation for spin 1/2 particles.
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