Direct measurement of the evanescent-wave polarization state

Abstract

We present results from a direct measurement of the elliptical character of the evanescent part of linearly in-plane polarized light, totally internally reflected from a quartz half-sphere. These results have been obtained by invoking polarization-sensitive and light-emitting organic nanofibers. The angular dependencies of the mean-square electric field vector components parallel and perpendicular to the surface plane agree with predictions from the Fresnel equations.