College Physics 10th Edition by Raymond Serway,Chris Vuille

Exercise 15

Light with a wavelength in vacuum of 546.1 nm falls perpendicularly on a biological specimen that is 1.000 m thick. The light splits into two beams polarized at right angles, for which the indices of refraction are 1.320 and 1.333, respectively. (a) Calculate the wavelength of each component of the light while it is traversing the specimen. (b) Calculate the phase difference between the two beams when they emerge from the specimen.