Chapter 1 - The electro-optic kerr effect

Abstract

Application of an electric field to glass causes it to become birefringent. This effect is known as the Kerr electro-optic effect, and is a property of all solids, liquids, and gases. The molecular theory of the Kerr effect in fluids provides a method to measure the combinations of molecular dipole moments and polarizability anisotropies. Experimental techniques were developed to measure the effect in gases, liquids, and solutions. Many results on optically anisotropic molecules as solutes in dilute solutions are available. These measurements in solution were to minimize the effects of intermolecular interactions, and molecular parameters for the solute molecules were obtained from measurements taken as a function of concentration using appropriate extrapolation methods. Measurement of the Kerr effect in low-density gases provides in principle a direct route to the polarizability anisotropy of molecules, and it was also realized that the studies of the Kerr effect as a function of density or pressure or gases could give information on intermolecular interactions.