The incident and the reflected beam span the plane of incidence.

This is known as the plane of incidence.

In the longitudinal effect, the magnetization vector is parallel to both the reflection surface and the plane of incidence.

Assuming without loss of generality a plane of incidence in the plane .

When the magnetization is perpendicular to the plane of incidence and parallel to the surface it is said to be in the transverse configuration.

It is monitored by monochromatic, p-polarized light whose electric vector component is parallel to the plane of incidence.

S-polarized light (polarization occurs perpendicular to the plane of incidence) cannot excite electronic surface plasmons.

At a certain angle called Brewster's angle, p-polarized light (light with the electric field in the plane of incidence) will be totally transmitted.

The orientation of the excitation dipole is a function of its angle to the normal and azimuthal to the plane of incidence.

In optical reflection, the plane of incidence is the plane spanned by the surface normal and the propagation vector of the incoming radiation.

MOKE can be further categorized by the direction of the magnetization vector with respect to the reflecting surface and the plane of incidence.

This change in reflectivity is proportional to the component of magnetization that is perpendicular to the plane of incidence and parallel to the surface, as above.

The law of reflection says that the reflected ray lies in the plane of incidence, and the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence.

They report a substantial, negative lateral shift of the reflected beam in the plane of incidence for a p-polarization and a smaller, positive shift for the s-polarization case.

When light reflects at an angle from an interface between two transparent materials, the reflectivity is different for light polarized in the plane of incidence and light polarized perpendicular to it.

At a special angle known as Brewster's angle, no p-polarized light is reflected from the surface, thus all reflected light must be s-polarized, with an electric field perpendicular to the plane of incidence.

TE refers to the component of the electric field perpendicular to the plane of incidence and TM to the parallel component (The incident plane is defined by the plane normal and the propagation direction of the light).

In the same manner, linearly polarized light incident on the surface becomes elliptically polarized, with the change in polarization directly proportional to the component of magnetization that is parallel to the reflection surface and parallel to the plane of incidence.

In the case of p-polarized light (polarization occurs parallel to the plane of incidence), this is possible by passing the light through a block of glass to increase the wavenumber (and the momentum), and achieve the resonance at a given wavelength and angle.

Optical polarization directions in presence of reflection take following names: p-polarized waves are linearly polarized waves parallel to the plane of incidence, and "s-polarized" waves are linearly polarized waves perpendicular to the plane of incidence.

The polarization state of the light incident upon the sample may be decomposed into an s and a p component (the s component is oscillating perpendicular to the plane of incidence and parallel to the sample surface, and the p component is oscillating parallel to the plane of incidence).