George Stokes defines the Stokes parameters of polarization

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Domains

Optics

Dates

Date of occurrence 1852

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

George Gabriel Stokes, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, published several important papers in 1852 about various aspects of the phenomenon of light radiation. One important advance concerned polarized light, and defined the parameters of the polarization process. He also identified and described how fluorescence works, explaining that some materials, such as fluorspar, convert ulta-violet radiation into the visible spectrum. The resultant process was named 'the Stokes shift' in honour of his discovery.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

72 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "George Stokes defines the Stokes parameters of polarization". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=6308, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

George Stokes defines the Stokes parameters of polarization

Domains

Dates

Places

Save this article

Leave Feedback