Transverse displacement at total reflection near the grazing angle: a way to discriminate between theories

摘要

The transverse shift is observed and precisely measured at total internal reflection on a dielectric interface for a circularly polarized light beam when the incident angle is scanned from the critical angle up to the grazing angle close to 90°. The experimental results show with no doubt that the transverse displacement exists far away from the critical angle and only vanishes at grazing angle. A comparison with theories also allows a discrimination between the most different theoretical models traditionally used to interpret physically this effect.