Kerr Effect In Water Research Articles

Determination of the Kerr Constant of Water at 658 nm for Pulsed Intense Electric Fields

This paper is devoted to a detailed presentation of all aspects involved in the development and demonstration of a compact electric field measuring system using the Kerr effect in water. During the experimental program, the Kerr constant of water was determined as 2.45 ·10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-14</sup> m/V <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ±10% at a wavelength of 658 nm, standard pressure and temperature, and fast pulsed electric field strength of up to 360 kV/cm. Details are given of the experimental arrangements and the techniques used at both research centers involved. Finally, a brief comment on the way ahead is provided.

Direct measurements of the nonlinear index of refraction of water at 815 and 407 nm using single-shot supercontinuum spectral interferometry

Single-shot supercontinuum spectral interferometry was used to measure the nonlinear index of refraction due to the optical Kerr effect in water at both 815 and 407 nm, with pump pulse lengths of ∼90 and ∼250 fs, respectively. Knowledge of the nonlinear index at 407 nm allows pulse tailoring to achieve remote underwater pulse compression and self-focusing.

Temperature dependence of optical Kerr effect in water and optically active media

The first systematic measurements of the temperature dependence of optically induced birefringence in double-distilled water and optically active water solutions of tartaric acid in the temperature interval from 275K to 328K are reported. The nonlinear and orientational-redistributional molar optical Kerr constants, mean third-order polarizability for water and optically active medium have been determined.

Kerr effect in water + dioxan solutions

The Kerr constants, densities and refractive indices of the water + dioxan mixture over the whole composition range are reported. The molar Kerr constant of H2O extrapolated to infinite dilution in dioxan is found to be ∞(mK2)= 2.3 × 10–27 C2 m5 J–2. The components of the polarizability tensor of H2O are calculated by two approaches, using light scattering data and a bond additivity method. Both give the same result within experimental error: αxx= 1.69 ± 0.04, αyy= 1.9 ± 0.2, αzz= 1.3 ± 0.2 (in units 10–40 C2 m2 J–1), where x is the dipolar axis and z is normal to the molecular plane. The Kerr effect over the whole composition range is interpreted according to a theory of Hasted, proposed for the dielectric polarization of organic + aqueous mixtures. We find that the structure of water increases on addition of dioxan up to xD= 0.2, xD being the mole fraction of dioxan, and then decrease, in apparent contradiction to the results from dielectric polarization which indicate a monotonic decrease in the structure of the water + dioxan mixture.

An apparatus for Kerr effect measurements in water and conducting liquids

A description is given of equipment for the measurement of the Kerr effect in water and other relatively highly conducting media. The equipment uses 2 mu s field pulses up to 8 MV m-1 in amplitude and is sufficiently sensitive to measure the smallest Kerr constants such as that of carbon tetrachloride. Illustrative results are presented for water.

Kerr effect in water due to high frequency radio waves

Kerr effect in water due to high frequency radio waves