Polarized beam splitting by total internal reflection in α-quartz

By incidence of a laser beam, polarized beam splitting was observed by total internal reflection in the right-angle prism of α-quartz. Divergent beams are formed after total internal reflection. The transmitted beams propagate in different directions in the plane of incidence, at different angles of reflection. Two split beams are linearly polarized waves, vibrating perpendicular (s-wave) and parallel (p-wave) to the plane of incidence, respectively. At total internal reflection from the direction of optic axis in a birefringent direction, the intensities of the two split beams depend on the propagation distance in the direction of optic axis. The polarized beam splitting is found to depend on the optic activity and birefringence of α-quartz.