Abstract
A RAY of plane polarized light, on entering an optically active medium, is resolved into two circularly polarized rays (one right-handed and the other left-handed) which travel at different speeds1. Cotton2 found that, in solutions of potassium chromium tartrate, the circularly polarized rays are unequally absorbed, and the emergent light is elliptically polarized. He called the phenomenon ‘circular dichroism’, and studied it in two ways: (1) by direct experiments with circularly polarized light, and (2) by ellipticity measurements. Later workers, however, have confined their attention almost entirely to the second method. Ellipticity is now usually measured by means of a λ/4 plate (or Fresnel rhomb) mounted behind the polarizing system of a polarimeter, and with this simple apparatus many substances have been shown to exhibit circular dichroism.
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