Optical Activity of Anisotropic Solutions. II

Abstract

The change in the state of polarization of light when it passes through an anisotropic solution is studied for arbitrary states of polarization of incident light. It is shown that the change in the polarization state, described in terms of the Stokes' parameters, can be generated by a 4×4 matrix H . Each element of the matrix H is a function of the wavelength of incident light and is connected with some quantum mechanical matrix elements of molecules which constitute the solution. Eight out of 16 elements of H are connected with a tensor ( p i ) 0 n ( p j ) n 0 and describe the usual dichroic nature of the solution. The other eight elements of H are connected with a tensor ( r i ) 0 n ( p j r k ) n 0 . Decomposing this tensor into irreducible ones, one pseudo-scalar (the rotational strength) and one five-dimensional tensor are obtained. A new method of observation by which the elements of the five-dimensional tensor can be measured without being masked by the usual dichroism is presented.