Nuclear spin-induced Cotton-Mouton effect in molecules

Abstract

In nuclear magneto-optic spectroscopy, effects of nuclear magnetization are detected in light passing through a sample containing spin-polarized nuclei. An optical analogue of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shift has been predicted and observed in the nuclear spin optical rotation of linearly polarized light propagating parallel to the nuclear magnetization. A recently proposed magneto-optic analogue of the NMR spin-spin coupling, the nuclear spin-induced Cotton-Mouton (NSCM) effect entails an ellipticity induced to linearly polarized light when passing through a medium with the nuclear spins polarized in a direction perpendicular to the light beam. Here we present a first-principles electronic structure formulation of NSCM in terms of response theory as well as ab initio and density-functional theory calculations for small molecules. The roles of basis set (we use completeness-optimized sets), electron correlation, and relativistic effects are discussed. It is found that the explicitly temperature-dependent contribution to NSCM, arising from the partial orientation of the molecules due to the nuclear magnetization, typically dominates the effect. This part of NSCM is proportional to the tensor product of molecular polarizability and the NMR direct dipolar coupling tensor. Hence, NSCM provides a means of investigating the dipolar coupling and, thus, molecular structure in a formally isotropic medium. Overall ellipticities of the order of magnitude of 10(-8)...10(-7) rad/(M cm) are predicted for fully polarized nuclei. These should be detectable with modern instrumentation in the Voigt setup.