History of Light and Polarization

Light is the most important element to the life on Earth, particularly to the existence of human beings. Humans have been trying to understand and utilize light since very early stage of our civilization. Polarization is one of seven fundamental properties of light waves, together with the propagation direction, wavelength, intensity, speed, phase, polarization, and coherence. The history of polarization in optical fibers and waveguides could not even start without the history of guided light, which relies on a phenomenon called total internal reflection. Elias Snitzer is the first to report solid theoretical and experimental studies of the polarization of light in optical fibers, particularly associated with waveguide modes. As the optical fibers became generally available, some researchers started to turn their attentions to using the optical fiber for sensing in which understanding the polarization properties was critical.