Selective reflection of obliquely incident polarised light

A series of reflection resonances formed by the hyperfine components of the D₂-lines in the spectrum of the natural mixture of rubidium isotopes is studied. Passages from resonantly frustrated total internal reflection to resonance Brewster reflection caused by the frequency tuning of the incident light are demonstrated experimentally. The contrast of the strongest refection resonances exceeds 500% at the moderate heating of reflecting cells. The intensity of the reflected light changes in this case by more than 20 times. A theory is developed which is based on a two-level model for resonance atoms and Fresnel formulas for reflection coefficients. Numerical calculations based on the proposed theory confirm main experimental results.