This TikZ code sketches the light behavior during its travel in a polarizing petrographic microscope when a birefringent crystal thin section is inserted between the polarizing devices.
The goal was to correctly show the vectorial relationships between light electric fields during its travel through the first polaroid, the mineral section and the second polaroid.

Edit and compile if you like:
% Polarizing microscope% Author: Cyril Langlois% This TikZ code sketches the light behavior during its travel in a polarizing% petrographic microscope when a birefringent crystal thin section is inserted% between the polarizing devices.%% The goal was to correctly show the vectorial relationships between light% electric fields during its travel through the first polaroid, the mineral% section and the second polaroid.\documentclass[11pt]{article}\usepackage{tikz}\usetikzlibrary{arrows}\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}\PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}\setlength\PreviewBorder{5pt}%\begin{document}\begin{tikzpicture}[x={(0.866cm,-0.5cm)}, y={(0.866cm,0.5cm)}, z={(0cm,1cm)}, scale=1.0,%Option for nice arrows>=stealth, %inner sep=0pt, outer sep=2pt,%axis/.style={thick,->},wave/.style={thick,color=#1,smooth},polaroid/.style={fill=black!60!white, opacity=0.3},]% Colors\colorlet{darkgreen}{green!50!black}\colorlet{lightgreen}{green!80!black}\colorlet{darkred}{red!50!black}\colorlet{lightred}{red!80!black}% Frame\coordinate (O) at (0, 0, 0);\draw[axis] (O) -- +(14, 0, 0) node [right] {x};\draw[axis] (O) -- +(0, 2.5, 0) node [right] {y};\draw[axis] (O) -- +(0, 0, 2) node [above] {z};\draw[thick,dashed] (-2,0,0) -- (O);% monochromatic incident light with electric field
Click to download: polarizing-microscope.tex • polarizing-microscope.pdf
Open in Overleaf: polarizing-microscope.tex