Electric birefringence of a binary liquid mixture near the critical consolute point.

Abstract

Transient electric birefringence measurements are performed in a critical binary mixture, water and butoxyethanol. The Kerr constant near the critical temperature is described rather accurately by a power law with a critical exponent \ensuremath{\psi}=0.85\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05. The transient electric birefringence is found to exhibit stretched-exponential relaxation of the form exp[-t/\ensuremath{\tau}${)}^{x}$], with x=0.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05 and \ensuremath{\tau} diverging as a power law in reduced temperature.