Plane of incidence
Encyclopedia
In optical reflection, the plane of incidence is the plane spanned by the surface normal
and the propagation vector of the incoming radiation. In wave optics
, the latter is the k-vector
of the incoming wave.
Optical polarization directions in presence of reflection take following names: p-polarised waves are linearly polarised waves parallel to the plane of incidence, and "s-polarised" waves are linearly polarised waves perpendicular to the plane of incidence. The names come from German "parallel" and "senkrecht".
Surface normal
A surface normal, or simply normal, to a flat surface is a vector that is perpendicular to that surface. A normal to a non-flat surface at a point P on the surface is a vector perpendicular to the tangent plane to that surface at P. The word "normal" is also used as an adjective: a line normal to a...
and the propagation vector of the incoming radiation. In wave optics
Physical optics
In physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics which studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid...
, the latter is the k-vector
Wave vector
In physics, a wave vector is a vector which helps describe a wave. Like any vector, it has a magnitude and direction, both of which are important: Its magnitude is either the wavenumber or angular wavenumber of the wave , and its direction is ordinarily the direction of wave propagation In...
of the incoming wave.
Optical polarization directions in presence of reflection take following names: p-polarised waves are linearly polarised waves parallel to the plane of incidence, and "s-polarised" waves are linearly polarised waves perpendicular to the plane of incidence. The names come from German "parallel" and "senkrecht".