The Transmission of UV Light through Polarized Film

This experiment was done to investigate how UV light transmission is affected by simple polarized film. An OceanOptics DT-Mini-2 Deuterium Tungsten Light Source was shone onto the Ocean Optics Red Tide USB650 UV sensor. Then, a polarizer was held between the light source oriented at its polarization angle and a second spectrum was obtained. Next, the polarizer was rotated 90 degrees to allow maximal transmission through the filter and another spectrum was obtained. Finally, two polarizers were held between the light source and the center oriented at their polarization axes and the final spectrum was obtained. The following graph displays the results.

There is an observed decrease in the intensity of the detected light with the presence of the polarizer oriented at any angle. However, when we orient the polarizer to maximize the filtration of the light emitted from the source, we see a significant decrease in the entire spectrum, although there is still a noticeable peak at approximately 660 nm, corresponding to the guide light from the source.