Electric and magnetic vectors in polarized light

Electromagnetic radiation has associated with it an electric vector E and a magnetic vector H. In linearly polarized light these vectors are mutually per- 

3 Energy level diagrams and crystal field spectra 

When light is passed through a polarizer such as a calcite Nicol prism, the electric vector is parallel to the plane of polarization. The electric vector transforms in different ways when the polarized light is transmitted through a single crystal of a mineral, depending on its crystal symmetry. 

Six types of spectra are theoretically possible in minerals of the orthorhombic, monoclinic and triclinic systems (McClure, 1959). However, for electric dipole transitions only three spectra are usually distinguished. These are the a, P and y spectra obtained when light is polarized along each of the three indicatrix axes, which in orthorhombic minerals such as olivine and orthopyroxene correspond to the three crystallographic axes. The majority of the spectra of minerals described in chapters 4 and 5 consist of polarized spectra measured in the three mutually perpendicular directions corresponding to a, P and y polarized light 

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