Extinction cross

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title: "Extinction cross" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["polarization-(waves)", "optical-phenomena"] description: "Optical phenomenon" topic_path: "general/polarization-waves" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_cross" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Optical phenomenon ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Extinction_cross.jpg" caption="An extinction cross photographed with a CCD camera using a green laser beam and a polarizer"] ::

The extinction cross is an optical phenomenon that is seen when trying to extinguish a laser beam or non-planar white light using crossed polarizers. Ideally, crossed (90° rotated) polarizers block all light, because light that is polarized along the polarization axis of the first polarizer is perpendicular to the polarization axis of the second. When the beam is not perfectly collimated, however, a characteristic fringing pattern is produced.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::