Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-optics-and-electrodynamics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/paper-1/3/b/solution

With A nearest the observer, the outward order is P then Q. The initially unpolarized light becomes x linear, then circular, before reaching the mirror. Reflection reverses its helicity. Its return through Q gives y linear, which is blocked by P:
Hence the ideal reflected filter is dark and the target cannot be seen through it. This is a double-pass polarization rejection effect, not unequal one-pass transmission from its two sides. Real mirrors at oblique incidence, imperfect retardance, finite bandwidth and depolarization can leave leakage.

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